Are federal prosecutors acting worse or are judges just starting to notice?
December 22, 2009 Two new and notable stories of federal prosecutorial misconduct have caught my attention the last few days. And these headlines discussing these stories prompt the question in the title of this post: From the Fulton County Daily Report here, “Judge Blasts U.S. Attorneys’ Pursuit of High-Profile Defense Lawyer” From the Cato @ Liberty blog here, “Judge Dresses Down Federal Prosecutors” The particulars of both of these stories of prosecutors gone wild could likely justify a full book and not merely a few blog posts. But rather than focus on the particulars here, I wanted to pose the broader question of whether the rash of these kinds of stories suggests that prosecutorial misconduct is on the rise or if, instead, judges are just becoming more observant of (and more likely to call out) prosecutors acting badly. I am inclined to speculate that the answer to the question of this post is “a little of both.” I fear that lately prosecutors are a bit more likely to push the et
