Page 13 - Jon Casey News Today

attorneys office. there is a share that -- etc., etc. that share, which for them is a portion of their funding is almost my entire funding so when you say youre going to cut 13% off everybody equally. well, 13% for us is more than 13% of their entire budget than for the other agencies. now the problem is thats the ripple effect we just had here. now they still have their investigators because they have other agencies that provide the investigation. we dont. our investigators are the on...

institutional public defender? i think that we see what we see as public defenders, maybe im biased in this regard but we have only one focus in mind and thats to our clients. our clients come first. damn to or the peete pidto if it is going -- damn the torpedo if it is going to cost us money. they have a conflict of interest. they are for the profit margin. and now profit margins might override to going forward and doing what it takes to get the job done and i think that is the differ...

she points to this list above her besk and now these are lists, names of defendants who have been changed with a crime in lower court in the justice court and they have been bound over to the circuit court for the prosecutor to bring to grand jury. by law in mississippi, the prosecutor has to give every case to the grand jury and the prosecutor can say there is not a lot of evidence in this case and this case has resolved itself, i dont think you should indict but it is people who have...

nobody put together these patterns. thats one of the great meanings of ordinary justice. >> john, do you know miss wiggs? >> new york city but i wish i did. -- no, but i wish i did. i remember reading somewhere a few years ago that a prosecutor had never been disbarred. i think that changed this year. there was a prosecutor suspended for hiding evidence in santa clara county for the first time this year in california. but very rarely are prosecutors ever held accountable for misconduct...

we have to cut back our attorneys. meanwhile, the prosecution, yes, they may have to cut back the attorneys. there are a lot of attorneys still being funded by these grant positions. so were up against a resource that doesnt go down in the same proportional rate as we do. we get contracted further than they are. thats the disparity now. they try find a way to make it cheaper. those ideas are always popping up. you see them all over the state. is it cheaper to do it by privatizing the p...

was but the case never went anywhere. so i had all of these stories and went to the clerk to have court and she is a woman named miss wiggs. she has a helmet of white hair and bright blue eyes and a plain talking way of speaking. i said what is going on here and she said you want to know whats going on? ill tell you. she points to this list above her besk and now these are lists, names of defendants who have been changed with a crime in lower court in the justice court and they have be...

violence case in 20 years. there are these patterns that we cant see or know because under the guise of discretion and they dont have to make it public, and if you lived in the county, all right, you might know, i know somebody who was beaten up but the case didnt go anywhere, nobody put together these patterns. thats one of the great meanings of ordinary justice. >> john, do you know miss wiggs? >> new york city but i wish i did. -- no, but i wish i did. i remember reading somewhere a...

prosecutors. and the role that prosecutors play in justice. prosecutors as we know have a tremendous amount of power. they have the ability to decide who to charge or when not to charge. what were some of the things that you noticed or found about prosecutor offices in your book and then im going ask john to talk about what his study shows in terms of what prosecutors are doing right and what they are doing wrong. >> well, prosecutors pretty much have unfair discretion to decide what t...

and this case has resolved itself, i dont think you should indict but it is people who have to decide what gets to court and what doesnt get to court. she said here i have 80 people on this list and when we came to court on the other day there was almost nobody there. people call me all the time and tell me horrible things that have happened to them and their children. their kids were molested. they were beaten up. someone was arrested yet the crime never goes anywhere. i asked her if ...

you know, when prosecutors abuse their power, they, you know, kind of like put their thumb on the scales of justice. the playing field is no longer level. it is clearly in the prosecutors favor and their abuse and unethical and unconstitutional behavior really stems from a culture that is about getting a conviction. you know, it is easy to point at cases where misconduct is blatant and evident. i think we have to take a look at all misconduct and abuse that occurs. when you talk about ...