Prosecutors Try to Turn Tables on Student Journalists

Litigation Topics and News Relative to Accident Reconstruction
brian
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Joined: Tue Jul 14, 2009 10:52 am

Prosecutors Try to Turn Tables on Student Journalists

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Prosecutors Turn Tables on Student Journalists
New York Times, Monica Davey, Oct 25, 2009
EVANSTON, Ill. — For more than a decade, classes of students at Northwestern University’s journalism school have been scrutinizing the work of prosecutors and the police. The investigations into old crimes, as part of the Medill Innocence Project, have helped lead to the release of 11 inmates, the project’s director says, and an Illinois governor once cited those wrongful convictions as he announced he was commuting the sentences of everyone on death row.
But as the Medill Innocence Project is raising concerns about another case, that of a man convicted in a murder 31 years ago, a hearing has been scheduled next month in Cook County Circuit Court on an unusual request: Local prosecutors have subpoenaed the grades, grading criteria, class syllabus, expense reports and e-mail messages of the journalism students themselves.
“Every time the government starts attacking the messenger as opposed to the message, it can have a chilling effect,” said Barry C. Scheck, a pioneer of the Innocence Project in New York, who said he had never seen a similar demand from prosecutors.
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COMMENT: Please also see our forum topic If YOU or someone you know has been involved in an accident. In it we mention that a pre-trial Innocence Project should be created to assist defendants in preparing for trial. Current Innoncence Projects investigate after there has been a conviction and incarceration. Why not also consider assisting public defenders and attorneys for defendants before the trial. Most, if not all, individuals do not have the resources and/or budget of County Prosecutors offices. To insure a fair trial and insure that truth and justice are served in the trial, some form of an independent objective group should assist in the examination of the evidence and expert opinions pre-trial.
Why? Because in some instances, Prosecutors do everything in their power to try to get a conviction, even if the evidence doesn't support a conviction. For example see our thread Validation of Occupant Simulation for one such example. It refers to the Washington v Sipin case. We have several other examples and may publish a detailed thread on example cases in the near future.
The vast majority of Prosecutors offices and police departments perform objective and conscientious jobs seeking truth and jutice. However there are instances where that is not the case. Some form of 'pre-trial' review board needs to be set up to reel in those Prosecutors and police who run afoul of objectively seeking truth and justice.
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