Revealing quote about the Barry Bonds indictment

From an LA Times article about the Barry Bonds indictment. Explaining why the indictment was delayed for over a year, the article says:

"The question was what would happen to someone's career if they took this case and didn't win it," the former official said. "They wanted assurances" they would win a conviction."

The statement that failure to convict can harm a prosecutor's career is highly revealing. Since this is the case, it is no surprise that many prosecutors have resorted to unethical tactics in order to convict defendants who turned out to be innocent.

Was Teresa Fargason railroaded?

Teresa Fargason was convicted in 1993 in the malice murder of her daughter and remains in prison today. In 2004, Court TV announced that it had "commissioned retired New York Police Detective Jerry Palace and his partner Reggie Britt to reinvestigate".

Court TV quotes Palace on the results of his reinvestigation:

In our opinion, the investigation was nothing more than an orchestrated witch-hunt intent on gathering enough circumstantial evidence to prosecute and convict Teresa at any cost.

Palace said this back in 2004, and Court TV first aired these allegations then. And yet I am aware of no evidence that Georgia authorities have attempted to reinvestigate the case. Teresa Fargason remains in prison.

Joe Francis turns the tables on prosecutor Steve Meadows

Florida State prosecutor Steve Meadows started the legal troubles of Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis by accusing him of (among other things) Child Pornography after two 17-year-old girls lied about their age to Francis' cameraman.

Francis is now turning the tables by accusing Meadows of being a child pornographer by showing the tape to employees of Nightline. And according to Francis' lawyer, this occurred after Meadows' office refused to turn the same tape over to him, claiming they could not do so because it was child pornography.

Greta Van Susteren at Fox News has picked up on the story. Interestingly, Greta says that Meadows' office will not return her calls. You can read more about it here.

The Duke Lacrosse Case

I cannot and will not attempt to improve on the wonderful work of KC Johnson in documenting the abuses of the Durham police and prosecutors in the Duke Lacrosse Case.. I will simply note that the case has brought a great deal of sorely needed attention to the subject of police and prosecutorial misconduct in the USA. You can read more about it here: Durham in Wonderland.