(no subject)

[theweaselking]

Sextuple Jeopardy: A man tried six times for the same crime. Convicted four times, with the first three thrown out on appeal due to prosecutorial misconduct and the last up for appeal on prosecutorial misconduct grounds now, and two hung juries - but the same prosecutor keeps retrying the same case (and fucking it up by maliciously breaking the rules 100% of the time so far, reviews show) and he's promised that if the current appeal holds, he'll try the same person a seventh time for the same crime.

I know I've got a couple of American lawyers in the audience: Is there anyone who can take the county DA off the case and assign a different prosecutor to the case? Or does the buck stop at the county DA? And is there any way for a judge to say "No, dude, YOU fucked it up six times in a row, you don't get a seventh shot at it since you're tromping all over his 5th and 6th Amendment rights."

Comments

[disgruntledgrrl.livejournal.com]

typically someone needs to reach out to a bigger fatter judge like in the supreme court or there's some Bar association I think looks into this. The Defendant should honestly COUNTER SUE for harassment.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

All four convictions have gone to the State Supreme Court - they're who overturned the first three convictions based on the prosecutor cheating.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

And then people wonder why I vehemently oppose removing double jeopardy laws.

At very leats there needs to be a substantially new case before they can drag the poor sods through it again. It's judge/jury swapping - try with one, didn't work, try with another

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

The problem here is that the double jeopardy rules apply to convictions and acquittals. These are mistrials / vacated trials / orders to retry - As far as the law is concerned, this dude is still on his first "legit" trial for that crime, because his first five trials don't count.

And, I mean, I agree that "Appeal says the Judge/Prosecutor/Defense fucked up, so you have to get a new trial" makes slightly more sense than "you go free" or "your conviction stands" in the general, but in this specific.... wow.

[dscotton.livejournal.com]

It seems like it should count as a sixth amendment violation... if the first five trials don't count, then he definitely didn't get a speedy trial.

[lafinjack.livejournal.com]

It's only been sixteen years, you have to give the prosecution a chance to get the wiggles out of their system.

[gebkivistik.livejournal.com]

Is there anyone who can take the county DA off the case

The citizens of Montgomery County, Mississippi. He is an elected official.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

So he has nobody he reports to between elections, then, and there's no real chance of him caring aobut an election, either.

(Rural Mississippi not re-electing a white man, just for maliciously and incompetently prosecuting a black man? Never happen.)

[gebkivistik.livejournal.com]

On an org chart basis, I am sure there is another Mississippi politician above him that he technically reports to- most likely the governor, or the state's Attorney General. I'll bet you can guess the likelihood that either will intervene in this matter.

[hoyvenmayven.livejournal.com]

Seems to this California lawyer that one possible remedy in this situation would be to bring a motion to recuse the prosecutor and/or his entire office, on the grounds that they can't give the defendant a fair trial. Our legal system (supposedly!) strives not only to do justice, but also to give the appearance of justice. So, in certain cases where it looks like the prosecutor cannot give the defendant a fair trial, a defendant can successfully move to remove the DA or his/her office from prosecuting the case. In California, when a DA's office is removed from a case, the state Attorney General's office steps in to prosecute. But those motions are hard to win. They have to be really egregious violations or just really obvious situations of bias, for example where the DA is the victim in the case. If this prosecutor has repeatedly violated legal ethics over and over again just to try to convict this guy (and I confess I haven't read the linked article), I think the defendant has a good argument that he can't get a fair trial, and he might have a good chance of getting the DA thrown off. That's assuming Mississippi has a similar law as California - I have no idea if they do or not, and I wouldn't be surprised either way.

Another option to pursue, simultaneously, would be to try to get the DA investigated and possibly disbarred or suspended by the State Bar for his numerous ethics violations. This would obviously depend on how egregious his behavior was.