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January 21, 2006

North Carolina Ex-Prosecutors Dodge A Second Bullet

I
've written recently about the case of two former North Carolina prosecutors who are alleged to have deliberately suppressed evidence and altered documents in order to secure a murder conviction. (The defendant in the case ended up serving 7 1/2 years before the trial errors that led to the conviction were remedied.)

A few weeks ago, the state bar's Disciplinary Hearing Commission indicated that it would dismiss charges of misconduct against the ex-prosecutors (now a private practitioner and a state trial judge) because the charges were filed too late.

The state bar objected to this, contending that the wilfulness of the prosecutors' misconduct made it a felony. There is no statute of limitations for allegations of felonious misconduct.

Now the Disciplinary Hearing Commission has rejected this argument and formally dismissed the charges. The rule on which the state bar premised its argument was, it seems, never published due to a clerical error in the Supreme Court's minutes.

How inspiring.

Posted by Eric at January 21, 2006 9:12 AM

Comments

If we can't properly police ourselves, perhaps the job should be outsourced.

Posted by: MacKenzie at January 22, 2006 6:49 PM