Poll: Prosecutor posed as public defender to capture axe murderer...

[Spoooon]

Story



<< A prosecutor admitted posing as a public defender to help deputies capture an ax murderer, even though he knew it might violate ethical codes.

Chief deputy district attorney Mark Pautler told a three-judge disciplinary panel Wednesday that he wanted to &quot;take a killer off the streets.&quot; >>



Right or wrong??

I made a poll, but I'd rather read responses than look at numbers.

edit: By the way, I agree with what he did. I do believe he should be punished, but what he did shouldn't have any impact whatsoever on the axe murderer's appeals.

edit2: typos :|

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

<edit>

so I can't read. heh heh

Yeah, the prosecutor was in the right. Good job for getting that lifeless puke and miserable excuse for a human off the streets.

</edit>

 

[TheVrolok]

Anyone know the laws regarding this? Can he pose as someone else and then have whatever he discovered admissable as evidence? Though it may be unethical he might have saved a few lives, yours, perhaps. If he indeed did break the law then he deserves punishment, but I think he also deserves a pat on his back <-- hippocritical, I know.

 

[raptor13]

Police do it all the time in the infamous &quot;Sting&quot; operations. So why not lawyer types? It's perfectly fine in my book.


The fact the prosecutor posed as someone else DOES NOT change the fact the murderer is just that - a murderer. Who cares how they caught the guy as long as he's brought to justice?

 

[Yo Ma Ma]

That's very wrong, our system isn't supposed to work by &quot;the end justifies the means&quot;. This usually results in the murderer's eventual release (think OJ).

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

Hmmmm . . . surprisingly, police are generally free to lie to suspects and use just this kind of deception to get suspects to confess. This kind of subterfuge has normally been upheld on appeal.

The problem I see here is that, by representing himself as a defense attorney, the DA here arguably established a protected attorney-client relationship with the suspect (since he was, after all, an attorney), and then violated the privilege of his client by relating the information to other prosecutors.

This does not affect the admissibility of the statements (since he violated an ethical rule, not the law), but the lawyer most likely will (and frankly, probably should) face bar discipline and may be fired as well.

Ultimately, it sounds like the good guys won, and it seems like a net gain for society, if not this particular prosecutor.

 

[ATLien247]

Why not try the case just on its merits? Did they not have enough evidence to convict the man?

I bet the attorney is going to feel like an ass if the man wins his appeal...

 

[joohang]

Laws are not universal. There are always exceptions to rules, and I think this falls into that category.

I am not the one to make any judgements, but from the looks of it, I think he did the right thing.

 

[Spoooon]

The only problem I suppose is that if enough prosecutors did this it might undermine the ability of a public defender to defend his client. I suppose you just have to take the good with the bad.

 

[jeremy806]

TE (above) hit this one right on the money.

Conivct the murderer, reprimand the attorney.

After all, a murderer is a murderer.


jeremy806

 

[Pretender]

He posed as a public defender during trial to help the prosecution win the trial? That's tipping the scales of justice a little too far, IMHO. He never got a fair trial, the decision of guilt was made entirely by the prosecutor.

[edited - original post was slightly incoherent]

 

[Double Trouble]

Yeah, it's nice that they got the axe murderer... but let's examine how much we'd like something like this if the defendant was not an axe murderer but someone caught for burglary, or even an innocent person framed. How would you look at the act then? Since we have equal justice for ALL (not one kind of justice for axe murderers and another for 'other' criminals), this is not acceptable.

I'd wager that the conviction gets thrown out and the guy will walk. Not only will they not get him, but because of double jeopardy he'll be a free man forever, the prosecutor might have blown the case forever with that stupid stunt.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

Tagej:

I doubt this will lead to a reversal on appeal. The prosecutor in this case probably behaved unethically, but it was not conduct that would be sufficient to warrant a reversal if he were a law-enforcement officer, and in this instance he was essentially working in a law-enforcement capacity.

The defendant's right to appeal is severely curtailed where (as in this instance) he pleads guilty anyway, and appellate courts can and do decide cases on their merits first and come up with a legal rationale later where the case warrants it. Since the prosecutor's actions here (at least according to the story) did not uncover evidence, but rather led to the suspect's turning himself in, there does not appear to be a basis for appeal.

The DA's behavior here was pretty foolish from a professional standpoint and I do not doubt he will be censured by his state bar, but frankly I doubt he will be disbarred, and hopefully his office will be able to just hide him away in an office until the media attention blows over, rather than firing him. I have a certain level of empathy for a person who makes a career-jeapordizing move in order to apprehend such a brutal killer.

One aspect of this case I find interesting is that the defendant chose to plead guilty and still got the death penalty. Frankly I find it hard to justify that decision by his attorney, since he obviously had nothing to lose and his survival to gain by taking the case to trial.