HUFFINGTON
08.04.13
AP PHOTO/THOUGHTWORKS, PERNILLE IRONSIDE, FILE
THE UNTOUCHABLES
conduct. But it wouldn’t be an
ethical violation on the part of the
prosecutor. “You must know of
the evidence in order for it to be
an ethical violation not to turn it
over,” Plattsmier says.
One way a prosecutor could
protect himself from accusations
of failing to turn over exculpatory
evidence gathered by police, then,
is to make a habit of not asking the police for such evidence.
That can create an unhealthy culture in which prosecutors take a
don’t-ask-questions approach to
police misconduct.
In September 2011, for example, Cannizzaro dropped drug
charges against Eddie Triplett,
who had already served 12 years
in prison for cocaine possession.
In 1999, two New Orleans police
officers had detained another man
on the street under suspicion of
drug possession. For reasons that
aren’t entirely clear, they also detained Triplett. Police attributed
the cocaine they found on the first
man to Triplett, then testified
against him at trial. Triplett was
released after his attorneys found
the long-suppressed police report
which described what had actually happened. The two officers
involved are still on the force in
New Orleans. And though Cannizzaro was somewhat critical of the
police department after freeing
Triplett, one of his assistants publicly defended the officers.
While it’s probably unfair to
point the finger at prosecutors
when police withhold evidence,
it’s also important to at least acknowledge that not holding prosecutors accountable can encourage a willful blindness to police
misconduct. In the Triplett case,
a prosecutor more skeptical of the
police, or at least more vigilant
Reddit cofounder
Aaron Swartz
committed
suicide in
January as
he was being
prosecuted
for computer
fraud after
downloading
a large
number of
academic
journal
articles.