Prosecutorial Misconduct exposed by the Chicago Tribune

I ran this article in the PWC Newsletter, and re-run it here for the sake of those who were not getting the newsletter at the time.

The Chicago Tribune (10-14 Jan, 1999) ran a scathing series of articles exposing the role of prosecutors in wrongful convictions in the United States in general, but especially in Illinois.

The titles of the 5 articles are:

Introduction to the Series (Jan 10, 1999)
Flip Side of a Fair Trial (Jan 11, 1999)
Justice in DuPage County - Cruz (Jan 12, 1999)
Putting Defendants on Death Row (Jan 14, 1999)
The Rewards of Railroading (Jan 14, 1999)

True to the website introduction, Ken Armstrong and Maurice Possley open their series of articles with a scathing rebuke:

With impunity, prosecutors across the country have violated their oaths and the law, committing the worst kinds of deception in the most serious of cases.
They have prosecuted black men, hiding evidence the real killers were white.
They have prosecuted a wife, hiding evidence her husband committed suicide.
They have prosecuted parents, hiding evidence their daughter was killed by wild dogs.
They do it to win.
They do it because they won't get punished.
They have done it to defendants who came within hours of being executed, only to be exonerated.