Dan M. Alsobrooks
What Happened to Those White Hats?
“Study Finds Hundreds on Death Row Innocent,” “American Prosecutors Violate Human Rights of Accused,” “DA Ignores Ethics Rules,” “State’s Attorney Boots Jurors Because of Race.” These headlines are typical of the “bells” our profession has been struggling of late to un-ring. Without a doubt, there is at least a structural bias in the media against our profession. One day the prosecutor is pilloried in the press for seeking the death penalty, the next day for “making a deal” to let a murderer escape “the needle.” “Prosecutor Does Great Job, Protects the Community” doesn’t sell many newspapers.
Law schools seem to breed innocence projects that never include references to the truly innocent in criminal cases, the victim. The landmark criminal cases we studied in law school are cases the defendant won. Again there is a structural bias. The bar association activists, the legal elite, come from prosperous firms whose corporate clients often need criminal defense attorneys. These are the folks who hobnob with judges at judicial conferences and on CLE panels. The prosecutor is mostly out there alone like the town marshal in the movie High Noon.
Prosecutors certainly are not perfect creatures, and public officials expect public criticism, right or wrong, on occasion. But, something has happened in the last decade that has replaced the road that had a few bumps into one paved with potholes. The O.J. case was clearly a negative milestone. Prosecutors took a bad situation and lost control of it. Now, criminal defense attorneys have become stars to whom ethics restrictions on trial publicity apparently no longer apply. The media has tasted blood and real life court dramas have become a money machine for the television industry. Side bar commentary and criticism by former prosecutors now occupy every evening’s TV fare.
Our critics are very adept at repeating ad nauseam the same slanted or just plain untruthful attacks. Close analysis of their studies and papers on topics like capital punishment have proved the old adage, about “lies, damn lies and statistics.” But the damage has already been done to the public trust formerly placed in conscientious prosecutors and our system of justice. With all the “mud” that has been slung, those “white hats” will not be cleaned over-night. We must reclaim our rightful position as the true protector of the innocent, the only officer of the justice system whose job it is to find the truth.
Individual prosecutors, state associations and NDAA are now beginning to help prosecutors fight back on national and international levels. NDAA Board member Josh Marquis, an Oregon district attorney and former reporter, was an early champion of this fight. Josh preached that while we must be right and fair in the courtroom, we must also do everything possible to be perceived as right and fair. For example, past NDAA presidents, John Kaye, Bob Johnson and Kevin Meenan, have presented papers to the International Prosecutors Association educating world opinion about the ethics guidelines used every day in prosecutors’ office in the U.S.
When confronting unfair and distorted attacks, we can prevail when armed with detailed analysis and thoughtful presentations of the truth. Illinois state’s attorney and NDAA Vice President Paul Logli has proven this in his state and at the United States Congress when he defended prosecutors’ positions on so-called “innocence issues” and attorney competency standards. Much of this research is available to NDAA members on the NDAA Web site.
NDAA now has a full-time media and public relations expert, Velva Walter, to coordinate national media inquiries and advise members concerning hot topic issues as they spring up daily. Training at NDAA’s Ernest F. Hollings National Advocacy Center in Colombia, SC; at NDAA summer conferences; and at the National College of District Attorneys’ (NCDA) Executive and Career Prosecutor Courses show prosecutors not only how to meet the negative attacks but, more importantly, how to go on the offensive with public relations. Proactive community prosecution programs are working in every state with technical support from APRI. I am particularly encouraged by the Center for Prosecutorial Ethics and Professionalism at the University of South Carolina which was established by NDAA and NCDA. For the first time we have the support of legal scholars for our use in supporting and explaining the real work of prosecutors in America.
NDAA has made a start on the long and winding road back to reclaiming the rightful position of prosecutors in our country. The “voice of America’s prosecutors” is composed of a choir of all NDAA members as they go about their important work in small towns and large cities in every part of this country. Now, armed with the facts and understanding the forces we are facing, it is high time we dusted off those white hats and sent the signal that prosecutors are the primary protectors of truth and the innocent in the courts of America.
