Maya Moore Quotes
Prosecutorial misconduct is one of the most detrimental problems in our criminal justice system, because prosecutors are essentially the most powerful actors in our justice system because they set the charges, they basically set up the rules of the game.
Moore, Maya. Interview by Robin Roberts. Good Morning America, ABC, 2 Jul. 2020.
He had been fired by the George W. Bush White House because he would not rush an indictment against a democratic politician to make the newspapers before the election that year. Unfortunately, many prosecutors will file a questionable case without sufficient evidence for a conviction. They get the newspaper headlines and TV coverage when they file the indictment, and little negative press when they person is found not guilty months or years later. The best prosecutors never will allow politics to influence their prosecution decisions, but there are still many who do.
Many like Black were concerned that prosecutors had the power to decide who would be charged, with what crimes, what penalties to ask for, and even able to start or end investigations of private citizens and politicians. By overcharging they are able, if they choose, to intimidate many people into pleading guilty, even for crimes that the never committed, in order to avoid taking a chance and possible have a very long jail sentence. Thus they were the most powerful people in the legal system, and had more power and less accountability, checks and balances of any public figures except perhaps for Federal Judges.
Actually, there have been cases where a prosecutor had been so overzealous that he broke the law repeatedly and it was public enough that s/he was disciplined. There have also been cases where District Attorneys have fired Assistant D.A.s who went too far. However, it is very rare. If a prosecutor is overzealous in trying to convince an innocent defendant, there is rarely any recourse.
The United States is almost unique among nations in their respect. While there are Federal law enforcement officers, the number is very small. For example, the entire Federal Bureau of Investigation complement of agents is outnumbered by one of the three shifts of the New York City Police Department. The vast majority of the police officers in America are not even at the State level; it is at the local level.
a dozen grand jury probes In 2000 Edwards was convicted.
Maya April Moore (born June 11, 1989) is an American professional basketball player for the Minnesota Lynx of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) who is on sabbatical. Naming her their inaugural Performer of the Year in 2017, Sports Illustrated called Moore the greatest winner in the history of women's basketball.
