Legislative Updates and Prosecutorial Integrity
By Derek Gilna
Most
legislative relief activity in Congress in 2015 has been confined to the
reintroduction of the bills that expired without being passed in the last
session that ended in December. One of
the new ones, known as the “Democracy Restoration Act,” would restore voting
rights to prisoners returning to their communities after release, assisting in
their reintegration. I will keep an eye
on this and other legislation of interest.
In almost
all of the cases that I review I find evidence of prosecutorial misconduct in
one form or another. Other than the
usual problems of over-charging, bullying of defendants to get them to testify
against others (whether the testimony is truthful or not) in return for
sentence reductions, threatening undeserved enhancements, or the like, there
are other even more egregious instances. Attorney General Holder has issued
what amounts to his own executive orders regarding some of the worst of these
practices, but his pronouncements lack the force of law for those already
convicted as a result of this type of behavior.
However,
there are instances of prosecutorial misconduct that, if proven, can win an
evidentiary hearing which can result in re-sentencing and less time in
jail. The mainstream media has begun to
cover this phenomenon, and this bodes well for getting the public to become
aware of this problem and press for more change. However, the cases and laws on these items
are already on the books. What is needed
are more cases brought to highlight the problem, to force prosecutors to take a
new look at their practices and reform themselves or face public censure.
One of
these cases is that of a Texas Jackson
Although
the loss of even one innocent life is a travesty, what about the thousands of
other lives of people in the federal prison system who are not guilty of the
charges against them, or who were denied the right to properly use exculpatory
evidence or who were wrongfully denied the ability to discredit the perjured or
exaggerated testimony of informants used to convict them? They also deserve relief, and quality
assistance. I’m here if you wish to move
ahead on this or other issues that might win sentence relief.
Derek Gilna
113 McHenry #173
