Radley Balko pens another excellent column for Reason Magazine

Radley Balko, known primarily around these parts for his work on the Dr. Steven Hayne front, has put together a good read on something that I find particularly troubling in our society today: the growing need to find someone criminally responsible for any tragedy.

In his latest article, Balko writes about the troubling case of Kevin Kadamus, a Vermont father who accidentally shot his son while turkey hunting. Balko's paints a picture in which the populous seems to be screaming for "justice" when confronted with a horrible accident. Balko's point is that we, as a society, place prosecutors in a very awkward position:

When was the last time you read a big story about your local district attorney declining to bring charges? It happens, of course. But it isn't covered. Even rarer, when was the last time a prosecutor was praised for such restraint? (The one exception might be police-involved shootings.) The truth is that prosecutors are praised, reelected, and promoted based on the cases they win, and on the number of people they put away.

This is a fundamental problem with our justice system, I believe. We ask the public to choose prosecutors, but the public has a poor view of what we as a society actually ask the chosen prosecutor to do. Thus, the prosecutor is faced with an oath that requires him to be a minister of justice, and employers (the people) who want him to find an evil motive where none exists.

Holding Prosecutors Accountable -- Could It Happen Here?

From the Death Penalty Information Center (http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/), an interesting news item:

Death Penalty Misconduct May Force District Attorney's Office into Bankruptcy

The Orleans Parish District Attorney’s office in Louisiana may file for bankruptcy because of a multi-million dollar law-suit award stemming from the office’s misconduct in a death penalty case. John Thompson, a former death row inmate, was awarded $14 million after he was exonerated due to the withholding of evidence by the former District Attorney. Thompson spent 18 years in prison, including 14 years on death row in Angola. The jury award was recently upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The District Attorney’s office said it can’t pay this and other settlements and will resort to bankruptcy in an effort to stay open. “If those funds aren’t there, those people can’t afford to work for free,” said Rafael Goyeneche of the Metropolitan Crime Commission. “That means it shuts down the district attorney’s office, but it also shuts down the entire criminal justice system.”

The District Attorney’s office was already financially troubled, recently asking the City Council for $2.5 million to avoid laying off 20 workers. “It’s been hard so far – very hard,” said District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro. If the office goes bankrupt, the state's attorney general would have to assume prosecution of cases, but that would take months of preparation and expense since that office does not ordinarily perform this function. ("Orleans Parish DA's Office Faces Bankruptcy," MSNBC.com, January 8, 2009).

My Question:

Do the Federal and State Courts in Mississippi have the political courage to hold prosecutors and other law enforcement officials accountable for misdeeds and constitutional violations? The recent lawsuits against Dr. Stephen Hayne and Dr. Michael West may start a new trend here -- unless our judges turn a blind eye to injustice . . .