The Innocence Project, a nonprofit legal group that represents people seeking exonerations, examined records in four states and interviewed a wide assortment of defense lawyers, prosecutors and legal experts. The researchers looked at court rulings from 2004 through 2008 in which judges found that prosecutors had committed violations such as mischaracterizing evidence or suborning perjury. They found 660 cases of prosecutorial error or misconduct. In 80% of the cases judges upheld the convictions, finding that the prosecutorial lapse did not impact the fairness of the defendant’s original trial. Convictions were thrown out in 20% of the cases.
Only one prosecutor was disciplined by any oversight authorities.
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