Activists Lobby ABA to Spearhead Prosecutor Reform

CROWN POINT, Ind. - Jan. 29, 2015 - PRLog -- A coalition of U.S. good government advocates is striving to limit prosecutorial discretion to help protect people inclined to report official misconduct. Today the group launched a sign-on letter campaign for support. Zena Crenshaw-Logal, the coalition’s spokesperson and an attorney before the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals explains, “Our goal is to help ensure that America’s criminal justice system is not a handy tool for retaliating against whistleblowers.”

According to Crenshaw-Logal, founders of her coalition wrote the American Bar Association’s Ethics Counsel requesting a model rule specifically requiring prosecutors to weigh America’s interest in punishing criminals against its need to encourage good faith disclosures of serious public and/or private sector misconduct. “Blind deference to prosecutors and their prosecution choices no longer seems prudent” says Dr. Sandra Nunn, a business ethics expert who became a national security whistleblower after years of decorated federal law enforcement. Dr. Nunn referenced New York Governor Cuomo, noting, "He apparently realizes that prosecutors may regularly thwart police accountability. Should we not acknowledge the possibility of them deliberately or recklessly undermining whistleblower protection?”

Crenshaw-Logal interjects, “Our call to action is for help encouraging the ABA to spearhead reform of what is called a prosecutor’s screening function.” Sharing the underlying human interest story is Dr. Andrew D. Jackson, an administrator with Golden Badge, a law enforcement whistleblower support group. Jackson notes that “Golden Badge member and former Tennessee Deputy Sheriff Mark P. Lipton was prosecuted on laughable aggravated assault charges within months of requesting a federal investigation of his former boss for an alleged DUI cover-up.” An unsuccessful request for discipline of the prosecutors involved includes Lipton’s claim “. . . that after rejecting an offer to plead guilty on a charge of disorderly conduct, he proceeded to jury trial . . . and was wrongfully convicted in 2012”.

Individuals and organizations can learn more about the plight of law enforcement whistleblowers including Mark Lipton, and join related outreach to the American Bar Association (ABA) by visiting http://www.njcdlp.org/#!prosecutors--whistleblowers/c1ngw