On June 25 (Tuesday), the Oklahoma Supreme Court sus­pend­ed for­mer Oklahoma County pros­e­cu­tor Robert Bradley Miller for his mis­con­duct in mur­der tri­als that even­tu­al­ly led to the release of two death row inmates. In 2006, a fed­er­al judge dis­missed the mur­der con­vic­tions of Paris Powell and Yancy Douglas after find­ing that a deal made between the pros­e­cu­tor and the key wit­ness in the case was nev­er dis­closed to the defense attor­neys. In Tuesday’s rul­ing, the Oklahoma Supreme Court found that Miller mis­used the sub­poe­na process to force wit­ness­es to coop­er­ate, failed to dis­close evi­dence to defense attor­neys, and pre­vent­ed the defense from access­ing evi­dence. In a 5 – 2 deci­sion, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ordered that Miller be sus­pend­ed from prac­tic­ing law for 180 days and pay a fine of $12,800. Although the major­i­ty agreed to the sus­pen­sion, Justice Steven Taylor wrote in his dis­sent that Miller should have been dis­barred. Justice Taylor wrote, ​“Whether it was ​‘decades ago’ or today, no attor­ney should ever com­mit the ​‘rep­re­hen­si­ble’ con­duct in death penal­ty (or any oth­er) lit­i­ga­tion as detailed in the major­i­ty opin­ion and tri­al pan­el report. The actions of the respon­dent take us into the dark, unseen, ugly, shock­ing night­mare vision of a pros­e­cu­tor who loves vic­to­ry more than he loves justice.”

(S. Murphy, ​“Ex-pros­e­cu­tor sus­pend­ed over death penal­ty case,” Associated Press, June 25, 2013). See Innocence.

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