Uncle Ben 
Group: Members
Posts: 273
Joined: Apr. 2004
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Posted on: Jul. 19 2004,1:34 pm |
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Prisoners Know That Police Lie To Get Convictions
By Michael L. Montalavo, prisoner of the Drug War
According to conservative U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Alex Kozinski, frequent police perjury and prosecutorial misconduct used to secure convictions is "an open secret long shared by prosecutors, defense attorneys, and judges." Judge Kozinski's remarks were reported by the Los Angeles Times in a recent series of articles about the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) scandal in its Rampart Division.
A former Rampart police officer, Rafael A. Perez, sparked the scandal when he told authorities about a host of alleged crimes committed by his fellow officers in the gang-suppression unit. In an attempt to bargain for a light sentence before retrial on charges of stealing three kilos of cocaine from LAPD evidence lockers, Perez told of officers framing reputed gang members for drug crimes they did not commit.
Officer Perez fingered officers dealing drugs, named officers who lied in sworn affidavits to obtain indictments and convictions, and accused other police of "dirty" shootings - planting a guns on corpses and claiming self defense.
The widening Los Angeles scandal, dubbed Rampart police probe sheds shocking new light on thousands of cases. There are many cases in which suspects admitted guilt to crimes they did not commit, rather than risk much longer prison sentences if they were convicted at trial.
Dr. Joseph McNamara, former chief of police of Kansas City, Missouri and San Jose, California warns that thousands of police officers swear to those lies in court every year. For years, defense attorneys have referred to this common police practice as "testilying."
The Rampart police scandal isn't news, even if it is shocking. News is supposed to mean just that, "new". That they were caught is the "new" in this news. Most drug war defendants and their loved ones have listened to police lie to a jury.
The drug war has spawned a plague of police perjury, and forfeiture booty. Convictions and forfeitures bring promotions that build careers. Our legislators insist that the ends in this war are justified by the means they wage it. Did they not think that setting up such a morally bankrupt system of promotion within the law enforcement and judicial systems would not lend itself to automatic corruption? It always runs down the hill, doesn't it? They should have known that the result would be corrupt. Leaders should have such foresight or they should not be leaders.
As the Los Angeles Times reports on the Rampart scandal have vividly pointed out, no judge wants to offend the police or prosecutors lest he gets "papered" with disqualification motions and labeled "soft-on-crime" or a "criminal-lover". An innocent citizen serving 20 years is plenty offended - and so are growing numbers of their loved ones.
Former police officer Perez's revelations has sparked 25 suspensions. The Los Angeles' District Attorney has been forced to notify defense attorneys that related criminal convictions involving those officers are being reviewed.
Civil rights attorney Stephen Yagman has sought disclosure of 4,000 cases in which those particular Rampart Officers were involved. Some of the prisoners who had been illegally charged and convicted by Perez and the corrupt police/prosecutor cabal have already been released.
The only way that a prisoner is going to get relief from perjured testimony by or coerced by police, is if an officer comes forward with a guilty conscious, or is "ratted" out by a fellow officer.
Police, federal agents, and prosecutors - in theory - are subject to constraints and responsibilities that don't apply to regular persons. U.S. v. Kojayan, 8 F.3d 1315, 1323-25 (9th Circuit 1993) is a rare instance in which a conviction was actually reversed because the prosecutor had point-blank lied to the defense, the jury, and the trial court - and was not caught until oral argument on direct appeal.
The prosecutor had denied the existence of a special agreement with a key witness who refused to testify. Judge Kozinski, who authored the Kojayan decision, provided a lengthy analysis of the government's duty to be honest.
Years ago, the discovery of a prosecutor's knowing use of perjured testimony would have likely reversed a conviction, unless there was no reasonable likelihood that the misconduct influenced the jury. U.S. v. Agurs, 427 U.S. 97, 103 (1976). Times have changed.
In U.S. v. Wallach, 935 F.2d 445, 457 (2d Circuit 1991) the court stated "[w]e fear that given the importance of the witness's testimony to the case, the prosecutors may have consciously avoided recognizing the obvious - that he (the witness) was not telling the truth.
U.S. v. Kaffar 840 F.2d 118, 127 (1st. Circuit 1988) the Court ruled that "it is disturbing to see the Justice Department change the color of its stripes to such a significant degree. (and disturbing to see that) prosecutors portray an organization, individual, or series of events variously as virtuous and honorable or corrupt and perfidious, depending on the strategic necessities of the separate litigation.
These are few published cases that have reversed convictions that were obtained by a prosecutor's use of police and informant perjury.
In all my thirteen years of legal research, I have not yet found a jury trial on a drug case where the prosecutor did not use police or informant testimony to win a conviction. I found in every drug case trial that the case agent, DEA "expert" witnesses, and co-conspirators seeking a light sentence had collaborated to win conviction.
It is clear and conclusive from my review of the records and conversations with defendants that prosecutors know they are inducing perjury to get a conviction. Shamefully, judges are either actively assisting, or acquiescing to, the prosecution by use of restrictive rulings on evidence and objections, and in giving manipulative jury instructions. The shameful part is everyone who is under oath to dispense justice defined by our Constitution, is playing God instead. They pass judgement of assumption - a defendant is a bad guy. Off with his head! No, it's American justice - Off to Prison! instead.
In U.S. v. Aviles, 170 F.3d 863 (9th Cir. 1999), the decision does not discuss that FBI agent Kolbye testified falsely during trial or that defendant Cornejo "was observed" giving $110,000 to FBI undercover agent Escudero. Before trial, the government had been forced to dismiss two money-laundering counts involving this same allegation because it never happened, and the prosecutor did not want to have Escudero questioned about this false allegation.
The prosecutor and the trial judge knew Agent Escudero was giving false testimony. Although the judge sustained an objection, he never had the false testimony stricken, and the jury was left with the fatal impression.
Reversals are rare these days. The drug war has completely corrupted the judicial system. Your family joining with the November Coalition to protest these injustices is what will bring us freedom. We are going to have to demand justice before we get it. There are so many appeals flooding overburdened courts-who can be paying them much attention?
The attention to be paid is to the growing reform movement. What would happen if a couple million people marched on federal courthouses, Congress, and the Senate to demand an end to drug war incarcerations and criminal injustice?
Support your local November Coalition vigils for freedom. If circumstances prevent you from joining a vigil, send some money so that they can multiply and grow. We don't need a sea of federal court clerks shuffling paper, we need a sea of protest.
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Considering the real-time nature of this bulletin board, it is difficult for me to review my messages or confirm the validity of information posted. Please remember that I am not responsible for any messages posted. I do not vouch for or warrant the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any message, and am not responsible for the contents of any message now or in the future. ------Uncle Ben
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