Saturday, September 28, 2013

Danziger Bridge Police Killings Conviction Reversal


Danziger Bridge Police Killings Conviction Reversal

 
The police officers that were convicted in the post-Katrina Danziger Bridge killings have obtained reversals of their convictions due to prosecutorial misconduct.  Oh, please, please, please allow the indulgence of Reproof. Yes? OK…

 
ALL CONVICTIONS INVOLVE PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT!

 
They are omnipotent and cannot resist constant deployment of their omnipotence.  (Aside: This is the sub-topic of an essay in progress regarding why prosecutors seek false convictions.  Spoiler = because they can!)

 
This reversal has only been granted because the defendants were active duty police.  Hundreds of thousands of post-conviction petitions of non-police convicts are ignored annually in order to protect prosecutors’ privilege of misconduct.  For a similar example see, Ring v. Arizona, 536 U.S. 584 (2002). 

 
The petitioner, Ring, received extraordinary consideration for his death penalty conviction.  As a state prison guard who killed armored car money couriers as a side job, his appeal was given privilege commensurate with his state employment and the entire death penalty sentencing schema was restructured.  How many equivalent appeals by less privileged defendants deserved the consideration Ring received?  All of them!

 
So what is extraordinary about the Danziger Bridge police killings reversal is not the ruling, nor the exposure of quotidian prosecutorial misconduct.  The extraordinary aspect is the exposure of proper function and the result of the appellate procedure, both of which are lacking in all non-privileged cases.

 

 

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