If convicted of a felony for such misconduct, it would be the first time that has happened in the United States. Prosecutors, who are the criminal justice system's gatekeepers, hold powers and responsibilities unique in American society. The decisions they make can determine who avoids or stands trial, who is convicted or acquitted, who lives or dies. They must protect society from criminals while upholding the justice system's integrity. They are supposed to avoid underhanded tactics that can help put away the guilty but threaten to convict the innocent.
Many prosecutors follow the rules and honor their obligations.
But the kind of deliberate misconduct that contributed to those 381 defendants' homicide convictions is so grave that courts believe it should never occur. And although prosecutors often downplay individual cases involving such deceit as aberrations, the body of cases turned up by the Tribune's search reveals that it happens frequently and in nearly limitless ways. Prosecutors have concealed evidence that discredited their star witnesses, pointed to other suspects, or supported a defendant's claim of self-defense. They have suppressed evidence that a murder occurred when the defendants had alibis, or that it occurred not in a defendant's home, as alleged, but in someone else's cornfield far away. In one case prosecutors depicted red paint as blood.