Congress Enhances Due Process Protections for Some Defendants; Now, It Should Take the Next Logical Step

Jeff VandersliceOn Monday, the House of Representatives passed theDue Process Protections Act (S. 1380) by unanimous consent after having received it from the Senate, which unanimously passed the bill in May. The legislation is now headed to the White House where it is expected to receive President Trump ’s signature.The bill reinforces an existing constitutional obligation of prosecutors to disclose so ‐​calledBradymaterial – material that is favorable to the defense – and facilitates the disciplining of federal prosecutors who fail to uphold their obligation to do so.Those who regularly follow this blog or have a fair understanding ofhow broken America ’s criminal justice system truly is won’t find it surprising that such a legislative fix is needed. Despite the Supreme Court ’s recognition of the so‐​calledBrady obligation in 1963, prosecutors neglect to meet their ethical and constitutional obligation to disclose materially favorable evidence to the defense far too often. A recent study by the National Registry of Exonerations reports that, among state and federal false convictions that eventually resulted in exonerations, illegally concealing exculpatory evidence occurred in at least 44% of all exonerations in the Registry. According to the authors, it is “the most common type of official misconduct that we report.”The tragic event thatfocused Congress ’s attention on this issue was the 2008 prosecution of the late Senator Ted Ste...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs