Prosecutorial misconduct is far more prevalent than most folk realize (or want to realize). In part it's because of the nature of our adversarial justice system, where the truth of a case is supposedly hammered out by advocates for one side vs the other; this can lead to defense misconduct as well, but as the prosecution has the powers of the state and the police behind it, their level of responsibility must be all the higher.
But it's not just a matter of prosecutors being incented to convict, rather than to determine the truth of a case, but of the entire system around them being incented in the same way, meaning that those prosecutors (or cops, or judges) who get caught with misconduct that leads to an innocent life being destroyed by a conviction (if not snuffed out in capital cases) are rarely if ever punished.
Another contributing factor is that our justice system is more of a process than an ideal — as long as all the boxes are checked, everyone happy. That's the explicitly stated goal in conservative attempts to limit the appeals system, and in the support that such efforts get from SCOTUS judges like Alito and Scalia. The truth of exculpatory evidence (or, sometimes, misconduct) is less important than whether the process was followed; if so, then the defendant had their day in court and there's no basis for appeal, next case, move along.
Human systems without accountability inevitably fall apart to human weaknesses. If prosecuting attorneys are not held to strict codes of ethics, and punished against them when they transgress, then the easy path will be to do whatever is necessary to win prominent cases and, so, promotions and elections. That's human nature, and it's pernicious, and it's been true in far too many cases for anyone to be truly comfortable.
10 days for 25 tears? Oh, I meant Years!…..dang spell check…
Drop him off in the showers, every day.
Sadly, justice is Just us.
Yeah, too bad that TV in this country still adheres to the Hays Code and stuff like this and all the other cop related things aren't shown on the Cop and Court dramas.
+Qwerty Uiop I don't want him raped, but I do think he needs to do more serious time.
Many years ago I had a friend who was a QC (for non-Brits, most senior kind of lawyer). I said to him if law was one of the great professions, how come we have a system where they get it wrong half the time – either the prosecution is wrong, or the defence is wrong. I pointed out if I, as a lowly civil servant was wrong half the time I would lose my job. He spluttered that’s not how it is!
Part of the problem with the US system is plea-bargaining; I saw figures for cases that don’t reach court, and it was staggering. It is a system that rewards defence lawyers for early guily pleas.
Oh and it’s ‘incentivise’. Not incent. I don’t understand how a country that has invented ‘burglarize’ to replace ‘burgled’ can’t cope with that!