An in-depth inves­ti­ga­tion con­duct­ed by USA Today found 201 crim­i­nal cas­es in which fed­er­al judges deter­mined that U.S. Department of Justice pros­e­cu­tors vio­lat­ed laws or ethics rules, includ­ing the recent pros­e­cu­tion of Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska. The inves­ti­ga­tion looked at cas­es since 1997, when Congress enact­ed a law aimed at end­ing pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct. Some of the vio­la­tions reviewed by USA Today result­ed in judges throw­ing out charges, over­turn­ing con­vic­tions or rebuk­ing pros­e­cu­tors. Of the 201 cas­es, 47 end­ed in the exon­er­a­tion and release of the defen­dant after the vio­la­tions sur­faced. Nino Lyons, for exam­ple, was con­vict­ed of drug traf­fick­ing based on sus­pi­cious tes­ti­mo­ny by prison inmates who were promised ear­ly release in exchange for their coop­er­a­tion. By luck, one of Lyons’s lawyers dis­cov­ered a dis­crep­an­cy in one of the witness’s tes­ti­mo­ny. This led him to hun­dreds of pages of reports that the pros­e­cu­tion nev­er dis­closed. Lyons’s con­vic­tion was over­turned and he was declared inno­cent. In anoth­er case, fed­er­al courts blocked pros­e­cu­tors from seek­ing the death penal­ty for a fatal rob­bery because pros­e­cu­tors failed to turn over evi­dence. Bennett Gershman, an expert on pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct, told USA Today that the abus­es are becom­ing sys­temic and that the sys­tem is not able to con­trol such behav­ior. With respect to con­se­quences for pros­e­cu­tors who break the rules, the paper could iden­ti­fy only one fed­er­al pros­e­cu­tor who was barred even tem­porar­i­ly from prac­tic­ing law for mis­con­duct dur­ing the past 12 years.

(B. Heath and K. McCoy, ​“Prosecutors’ con­duct can tip jus­tice scales,” USA Today, September 23, 2010). See Innocence, Prosecutorial Misconduct, and Federal Death Penalty.

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