Another wrongful conviction story, here. Thirty-six years in prison while innocent. In this case, the prosecutor's office did not object or obstruct release. in fact, the office initiated the process before the court, based on information provided to it by one of the imprisoned, who obtained the exculpatory evidence by way of a freedom of information request for court records. In those records he found proof that the prosecutor hide evidence that a third party committed the murder. The prosecution witnesses had by then recanted, claiming that their testimony was the result of abusive tactics by the police. The state's attorney, Jonathan Shoup, lied. He is now dead, so no possibility of repercussions for his misconduct. The Baltimore prosecutor Carol Mosby, has an office that looks at old cases that seem questionable. That is good. And the office seems to be doing work, as these are not the first wrongfully convicted to be helped by that office.
Too few prosecutorial offices have such a function, too few offices ever discipline attorneys who wrongfully prosecute and convict, and too many offices unreasonably resist efforts to free the wrongfully convicted -- a problem, in my mind, for Kamala Harris's campaign. Missing from the story is any indication that any of the prosecution team -- the lawyers or the police -- will ever face discipline for what they did.
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