The Chronic Failure to Discipline Prosecutors for Misconduct: Proposals for Reform

While most prosecutors adhere to the maxim that their primary task is to obtain just results, there are some who violate their ethical responsibilities in order to rack up convictions. This article describes the distressing, decades-long absence of discipline imposed on prosecutors whose knowing misconduct has resulted in terrible injustices being visited upon defendants throughout the country. Many honorable lawyers have failed to speak out about errant prosecutors, thus enabling their ethical breaches. The silent accessories include practicing lawyers and judges of trial and reviewing courts who, having observed prosecutorial misconduct, failed to take corrective action. Fault also lies with members of attorney disciplinary bodies who have not investigated widely publicized prosecutorial misconduct. This article summarizes the rules requiring all members of the bar to report unethical conduct. We focus particularly on lawyers who serve in prosecutors’ offices, defense lawyers, and trial and reviewing court judges and their lawyer clerks, each of whom has a personal, non-delegable responsibility to report their knowledge of ethical breaches to disciplinary authorities. In addition, the article identifies reforms to the justice system designed to reduce prosecutorial abuses: (1) substituting for the Brady rule a verifiable open-file pretrial discovery requirement on prosecutors; (2) instead of invoking harmless error, requiring reversal of convictions if serious prosecutorial misconduct is proven; (3) identifying errant prosecutors by name in trial and appellate opinions; (4) providing prosecutors with qualified instead of complete immunity from civil damages for misconduct; and (5) authorizing the Department of Justice’s Office of Inspector General to handle investigations of alleged misconduct by federal prosecutors. The article also proposes that attorney disciplinary bodies adopt changes designed to more effectively discover and sanction misbehaving prosecutors. Lawyer organizations and bar associations are urged to speak out when prosecutors deviate from appropriate conduct, and law schools are encouraged to include instruction on ethical rules peculiar to the criminal practice

Too Precious To Lose: Managing and Protecting the Richmond Pine Rockland Tract (Richmond) in Miami Dade County, South Florida

Pine rockland is a globally critically imperiled ecosystem limited to the southern tip of Florida and nearby islands. Miami’s Richmond tract contains the largest American assemblage of pine rockland species. Competing interests challenge management in this fire-dependent ecosystem surrounded by urban development. In 2018, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden and Miami-Dade County updated a 1994 management plan, complete with best practices, new developments, current data and learned experiences. An analysis in Richmond indicated non-traditional areas provided habitat for endangered species

Conservation Strategies for a Globally Imperiled and Hyper-Fragmented Ecosystem: Acquisition, Regulations, Incentives and Outreach in Miami Dade County

Pine rocklands are a globally critically imperiled ecosystem with limited geographic range, characterized by a high biodiversity of endemic herbaceous plants and frequent fire intervals (2-5 years). In Miami-Dade County, approximately 2% of the forest outside Everglades National Park (ENP) remains. The County adopted a forest property tax program in 1979, passed a forest preservation ordinance in 1984, and created a land acquisition program in 1991. Outreach and filling in the gaps between preservation areas are critical for the survival of a number of species

Latinx Defendants, False Convictions, and the Difficult Road to Exoneration

The National Registry of Exonerations (the Registry) reports all known exonerations in the United States since 1989. Of the more than 2,400 exonerated defendants currently in the database, 281 are classified as Latinx. In many ways, their cases resemble those of other exonerees. The same factors that produced false convictions of non-Latinx defendants-including mistaken eyewitness identification, misconduct by police and prosecutors, and perjury-were also at work in Latinx defendants' cases. There are, however, differences both in the types of crimes for which Latinx exonerees were convicted and in the ways in which they were vulnerable to the errors and misconduct that produce false convictions. Moreover, the consequences of a false conviction-though calamitous for anyone-may be more pronounced for Latinx defendants with precarious immigration status. In this Article, we present what we know about Latinx defendants who have been exonerated-the nature of the crimes, the factors that contributed to their wrongful convictions, and how their cases compare to non-Latinx exonerees. We discuss the particular ways in which Latinx defendants may be vulnerable to wrongful convictions, using case studies to explore how language barriers, racial profiling, and immigration concerns can be exploited in their cases. Finally, we consider barriers to exoneration, and how falsely convicted Latinx defendants may be particularly disadvantaged when seeking to overturn their convictions

Government Misconduct and Convicting the Innocent: The Role of Prosecutors, Police and Other Law Enforcement

This is a report about the role of official misconduct in the conviction of innocent people. We discuss cases that are listed in the National Registry of Exonerations, an ongoing online archive that includes all known exonerations in the United States since 1989, 2,663 as of this writing. This Report describes official misconduct in the first 2,400 exonerations in the Registry, those posted by February 27, 2019. In general, we classify a case as an “exoneration” if a person who was convicted of a crime is officially and completely cleared based on new evidence of innocence. The Report is limited to misconduct by government officials that contributed to the false convictions of defendants who were later exonerated—misconduct that distorts the evidence used to determine guilt or innocence. Concretely, that means misconduct that produces unreliable, misleading or false evidence of guilt, or that conceals, distorts or undercuts true evidence of innocence

Identifying predictors of translocation success in rare plant species

The fundamental goal of a rare plant translocation is to create self-sustaining populations with the evolutionary resilience to persist in the long term. Yet, most plant translocation syntheses focus on a few factors influencing short-term benchmarks of success (e.g., survival and reproduction). Short-term benchmarks can be misleading when trying to infer future growth and viability because the factors that promote establishment may differ from those required for long-term persistence. We assembled a large (n = 275) and broadly representative data set of well-documented and monitored (7.9 years on average) at-risk plant translocations to identify the most important site attributes, management techniques, and species' traits for six life-cycle benchmarks and population metrics of translocation success. We used the random forest algorithm to quantify the relative importance of 29 predictor variables for each metric of success. Drivers of translocation outcomes varied across time frames and success metrics. Management techniques had the greatest relative influence on the attainment of life-cycle benchmarks and short-term population trends, whereas site attributes and species' traits were more important for population persistence and long-term trends. Specifically, large founder sizes increased the potential for reproduction and recruitment into the next generation, whereas declining habitat quality and the outplanting of species with low seed production led to increased extinction risks and a reduction in potential reproductive output in the long-term, respectively. We also detected novel interactions between some of the most important drivers, such as an increased probability of next-generation recruitment in species with greater seed production rates, but only when coupled with large founder sizes. Because most significant barriers to plant translocation success can be overcome by improving techniques or resolving site-level issues through early intervention and management, we suggest that by combining long-term monitoring with adaptive management, translocation programs can enhance the prospects of achieving long-term success

The relative influence of geographic and environmental factors on rare plant translocation outcomes

Conservation translocations are an established method for reducing the extinction risk of plant species through intentional movement within or outside the indigenous range. Unsuitable environmental conditions at translocation recipient sites and a lack of understanding of species–environment relationships are often identified as critical barriers to translocation success. However, previous syntheses have drawn these inferences from analyses of qualitative feedback rather than quantitative environmental data. In this study, we use a data set of 235 translocations conducted in the US to understand the influences of geographic and environmental factors on three metrics of translocation success: population persistence, next-generation recruitment and next-generation maturity. We use random forest models to quantify the relative importance of geographic and environmental factors that characterize dissimilarity between source and recipient locations, the position of recipient sites relative to species' ranges and niche metrics derived from these ranges. We also compare the importance of these variables with more conventional predictors (e.g. founder population size). Our results indicate that geographic and environmental variables can be as insightful as conventional variables for predicting plant translocation outcomes. The climate suitability of recipient sites, estimated using species distribution models, was the strongest relative predictor of whether a population persisted, with populations situated in more suitable climates displaying greater persistence. Next-generation recruitment and maturity were best predicted by niche metrics; species in more biotically limiting environments, including tropical regions and soils with high relative nutrient retention, as well as species with the broadest precipitation niches, were the least likely to attain these next-generation benchmarks. Synthesis and applications. Our study is one of the first to quantify the important role of spatial and climatic factors in rare plant translocation outcomes. We provide a novel geographic and environmental perspective on outcomes in plant translocations and demonstrate opportunities to improve translocation success not only by adhering to established best practice guidelines but also by integrating spatial modelling approaches into planning and management processes

Seasonal reproductive patterns of the sea urchin Strongylocentrotus purpuratus (Stimpson) at three contrasting habitats in San Diego, CA

iv, 21 p.Monthly samples of gonads from 20 adult sea urchins, Strongylocentrotus purpuratus, were collected over a period of one year from three contrasting coastal habitats at San Diego, CA. The habitats included (1) a rocky intertidal zone, and two subtidal areas at: (2) 8 m and (3) 18 m depths within a forest of the giant kelp Macrocystis pyrifera. These sites differ in temperature and the amount of drift kelp available as food for urchins. The gonads were preserved and prepared for light microscopical analysis using standard histological techniques. Sections of gonadal tissue were examined to determine (1) the sex ratio, and (2) the reproductive stage of each adult ovary over the one year period. Results showed that San Diego populations of S. purpurattis follow a reproductive pattern generally similar to those of other western North American coastal populations of the same species. There was a markedly female-skewed sex ratio for the intertidal and 8m subtidal sites. The intertidal females appeared to be approximately one month ahead of the subtidal ones in timing of reproductive events, and to spend a larger percentage of the year in the recovery phase. It is likely that an environmental factor such as photoperiod synchronizes the timing of events between populations while more variable factors such as temperature and food availability cue the onset of gametogenesis and cause slight between-site variations in the timing of reproduction.Scripps Institution of Oceanography. University of California, San Diego. La Jolla, California