Prosecutorial Conduct: Conviction Integrity Unit

The fact is the criminal justice system is extremely powerful in this nation. Surprisingly, at all levels of it's functionalities, it is seemingly absent appropriate, external oversight. This should scare you. Detractors of the conversation on police accountability often say things like "Well, if you just follow the law, you won't go to jail!" We know this to not be true--especially with the alarming rate of racial profiling, trans and queer antagonism, houseless targeting, among other biases enacted by the police.

State Attorney (sometimes referred to District Attorney) offices wield an incredible power over the people. At their whim, they can file charges and can determine the fate of human beings on the basis of their findings--even if they are not ethical in their processes. Alarmingly, most State Attorney's face no oversight from any external functions. Citizen journalist Haydee Oropesa discusses the new Hillsborough County State Attorney's campaign promise to enact a Conviction Integrity Unit on her YouTube channel and we recommend you take a moment to watch.

Conviction integrity units can make a huge impact on people's livelihood and lessen the power imbalance between the prosecutor and the people. The Innocence Project outlines some criteria they recommend for a successful, useful integrity unit.

Some of the items the Innocence Project discusses include, but are not limited to:

• Integrity units cooperate with defense attorney's, advocates and innocence/exoneration project organizations.
• The most successful units have been run by defense attorney's, who work full-time and have substantial oversight authority.
• In addition, an independent, external advisory board of attorney's exist to oversee operations.
• Prosecutors are prohibited from any involvement in investigating any cases in which they were involved with.
• The unit is transparent and publishes their findings publicly.
• The unit has the power to recommend State Attorney personnel training and policy development based on their findings in conviction cases.
  
  But do they work? According to the Huffington Post, there has been some strides and success stories.  

Although there are over 2,300 prosecutorial offices in the country, only 24 conviction integrity units exist, which is an extreme lack of oversight nationwide. In 2015, 150 people were exonerated from their convictions in total. Of those 150 exonerated, 58 received their exoneration due to properly implemented conviction integrity units, which accounts for 39% of all exoneration. Considering there are only a few conviction integrity unit bodies in the country, that is quite a substantial amount. 

At best, a prosecutor, being human, could make a mistake--and that mistake could be very costly to someone's life. At worst, misconduct, greed and power may cause a prosecutor to incriminate someone for the sole purpose of holding their ranks within their role as a prosecutor, flexing to the public and earning their salary and bonuses. According to business insider, since 1989, 1,761 people have been exonerated for wrongful convictions. Likely though, that doesn't account for the number of people whose appeals have been denied and who have never been met with any formal representation. Below is a graphic of the trend: