Why water down a proposed ethics rule for Texas prosecutors? | Opinion
Mallory Vernon Nicholson smiles while talking with media after his hearing June 2 in Dallas. Forty years after Mallory Vernon Nicholson’s trial for burglary and aggravated sexual abuse of a child, he was exonerated.A committee of the State Bar of Texas has proposed a new ethics rule requiring prosecutors to take action when they discover evidence that someone may have been wrongfully convicted.
The proposal was patterned after a model rule of the American Bar Association and similar to that already adopted by some other states. Violation would subject a prosecutor to an ethics violation, resulting in possible sanctions or even disbarment. Prosecutors are agents of justice, not members of a team looking to score convictions. By watering down the proposed new rule, the committee backed down under pressure and made it easier for the wrongly convicted to unjustly stay behind bars.
Mike Ware, executive director of the Innocence Project of Texas, shares our disappointment in the proposal but said at least it’s better than nothing. He also pointed out that it requires prosecutors to disclose potentially exonerating information to organizations like his that work to free the innocent, and that’s an improvement.
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