Officer Misconduct
Disclosing Officer Untruthfulness to the Defense: Is a Liar's Squad Coming to Your Town?
Officer misconduct scenario
Police officers must not simply be held to the same standards as members of the public. They must be held to a higher standard. This is illustrated in the following scenario: a police officers is found to have searched for pornographic materials on a work computer and when initially confronted about this violation of department policy he lied, claiming he had no idea how the search history of the pornographic materials made its way onto his computer. He only confessed once the link was made between his log-in information and the search. This combination of dishonesty and poor judgment is a compelling argument for the officer's immediate dismissal, despite the fact that he has an otherwise largely unblemished record.
If an ordinary citizen was found to have been searching pornographic websites on a workplace computer, he or she would almost certainly be terminated for ignoring office protocols; the same should be true of a police officer. An officer must be trusted to be honest and forthright as well and this officer not only 'stole' the public's time but also attempted to cover up the crime, which calls into question his credibility as a witness in future investigations. The additional scrutiny under which officers in the present day labor further underlines the need for a higher standard to be upheld when dealing with members of the police force. Trust of the police is at an all-time low and there is a great deal of friction between officers and the public. The office cannot afford to have someone on the roster who places his own interests above the interests of the public.
Evidence of a willingness to withhold evidence to secure a conviction has been linked to corruption in the police force, as manifested in cases such as Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963). In this case, the state was found to have actively withheld evidence that could have exonerated the defendant made during another trial, resulting in a wrongful conviction. "Several of those statements were shown to him [the defendant Brady]; but one dated July 9, 1958, in which Boblit admitted the actual homicide, was withheld by the prosecution and did not come to petitioner's notice until after he had been tried, convicted, and sentenced, and after his conviction had been affirmed" (Brady v. Maryland, 1963). Such evidence clearly would have been used to potentially exonerate Brady. The Court agreed that the defendant's Fourteenth Amendment right to due process had been violated. This underlines the extent to which honesty amongst law enforcement is essential. It can very easily result in an overturned conviction and the only way to ensure that officers are honest is to be scrupulous in policing minor violations.
The 'Brady' defense became an accepted part of law, mandating disclosure of all relevant information as a requirement of the justice system. It was invoked again in 1994 in a similar case entitled Kyles v. Whitley in which "petitioner Kyles was convicted of first degree murder by a Louisiana jury and sentenced to death" but it was "revealed on state collateral review that the State had never disclosed certain evidence favorable to him. That evidence included, inter alia, (1) contemporaneous eyewitness statements taken by the police following the murder; (2) various statements made to the police by an informant known as 'Beanie,' who was never called to testify; and (3) a computer print-out of license numbers of cars parked at the crime scene on the night of the murder, which did not list the number of Kyles's car" (Kyles v. Whitley, 1994). It was deemed that the net effect of this evidence suggested a strong probability that Kyle's conviction would not have stood, had it been presented at the time of his trial. "While the inconclusiveness of that evidence does not prove Kyles's innocence, and the jury might have found the unimpeached eyewitness testimony sufficient to convict, confidence that the verdict would have been the same cannot survive a recap of the suppressed evidence and its significance for the prosecution" (Kyles v. Whitley, 1994). What is not disclosed can be just as significant as what is disclosed and if could have resulted in a significantly different decision in favor of the defendant, the conviction must be overturned. Once again, this highlights the need for both honesty and good judgment on the part of law enforcement.
A similar issue regarding disclosure had been found in the case of Giglio v. United States,...
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