Deceitful District Attorneys: Part I

Most prosecutors are elected officials. As such, the base their ratings on how many convictions they get. It is rare to find a district attorney that is fully committed to discovering the truth. Rather, they want to show people how “successful” they are by showcasing their number of convictions. 

To increase those numbers, they are not opposed to using tactics that are less than moral. For instance, they focus on scare tactics. To get someone to confess, they will flat out lie and tell the accused that they have more evidence than they actually do. They will fabricate stories that are simply not true and then use those stories get forced confessions. The defence is allowed to request this, but the prosecution isn’t required to produce it until just hours before a trial.

This is called discovery.  

The prosecution is required to hand over all of the evidence they have prior to trial,but they are not required to do so until just days before the trial happens. This does not grant the defence to properly prepare and validate allegations.

Further, the prosecution can legally lie about what they have in order  force a plea deal. They could say that there is a “smoking gun” story that will send the accused away for years.  When it comes to trial they can neglect to add that story and state that they don’t need it, therefore they don’t have to provide this fake evidence in discovery. In reality, the story never existed. It was used as a way to force a confession.

In cases that drag on for years, many times,  the accused may run out of money, witnesses may move on, or they simply run out of energy to fight. In their delays to provide discovery, the prosecution forces the accused to keep fighting while their money is drained. Since the prosecution doesn’t have to worry about that, they use tax payer money on these tactics they can wait as long as it takes for the accused to give up.

Since most cases do not go to trial, using discovery as a way to force plea deals has become common. Despite that abuse that happens, courts have been reluctant to update the laws to prevent this type of abuse.  All the public sees is that another criminal has gone to prison. However, the public generally does not see the lies and deception that goes on behind the scenes. 

The prosecution, in a just world, would turn over all of the evidence they get as soon as it is discovered. This would also include exculpatory evidence. This would provide a more fair system of justice by allowing the defense to complete their own investigation. It would give equality and transparency to both sides, resulting in far less false convictions.

Most importantly, the focus would start to shift from fear and intimidation to win convictions to a method of focusing on truth and justice, punishing those who do commit crimes, and ensuring the falsely accused the best chance at proving their innocence.

Many others laws were originally intended to promote fairness, but through time, they have been twisted from their original intent. Falsifying discovery is an important tool that district attorneys use to secure convictions, even if the accused is innocent of the accusations.   We, as a society, need to hold the prosecution accountable for their actions and stop these immoral practices.