Dick Devine, who has been in office since 1996, said training and education on the issue of prosecutorial misconduct is mandatory for every new assistant state's attorney. Benjamin also said the number of reversals was a minute fraction of the number of cases handled by the office. Officials at the attorney disciplinary commission were unavailable for comment Monday because the agency was closed for the Rev. Martin Luther King holiday. When those prosecutors acknowledge making a mistake and promise not to repeat their conduct, no action is taken by the commission. At the bar association news conference, Buford called on members of the community, police, lawyers and judges to notify her orgnization about allegations of wrongdoing by prosecutors so the information can be made public.
Evidence becomes stale.
The Tribune series documented how Illinois courts rarely identify prosecutors whose misconduct leads to a reversal of a conviction and how the appellate courts often issue such decisions in unpublished orders, which are not put into legal databases. R. Eugene Pincham, a defense attorney who formerly served as an Illinois Appellate Court judge, joined Buford at the news conference and called on the courts to name offending prosecutors and to stop disposing of prosecutorial misconduct reversals in unpublished opinions. At the very least, Pincham declared, unpublished opinions should be kept in a bound volume so that the public will have access to the rulings of the court. If a charge is brought against a prosecutor, it ought to be published.