California Superior Court Judge Thomas Goethals (pictured) disqualified the entire Orange County District Attorney’s Office from prosecuting a death penalty case after finding that prosecutors had engaged in a systemic pattern of police and prosecutorial misconduct involving the deliberate, but undisclosed, use of prison informants to obtain incriminating statements from defendants. None of the 250 prosecutors in the office are now permitted to participate in the case. Attorneys for the defendant, Scott Dekraai, say that after he had invoked his right to counsel, he was deliberately placed near a repeat jailhouse informant who had been given instructions to try to elicit a confession from him. Such a practice is unconstitutional because the informant in a cellmate interaction orchestrated by prosecutors or police is in effect an agent of the police, and the interaction is too much like an interrogation. Defense attorneys also discovered that the Orange County Sheriff’s Department had maintained a secret record-keeping system for more than 25 years that detailed its systemic surreptitious use of prison informants. That system contained potentially exculpatory information, but officials denied its existence and refused to turn over records to defense counsel, in violation of the law. California Attorney General Kamala Harris has appealed Judge Geothals’ ruling, but said her office will investigate the allegations.

(D. Lithwick, “You’re All Out,” Slate, May 28, 2015.) See California.

Citation Guide