Charges Dismissed Against Defense Attorney

The order  of a hearing panel of the North Carolina Disciplinary Hearing Commission dismissing ethics charges against an attorney for alleged misconduct in a wrongful conviction case is now available. 

During the relevant period referred to herein, Defendant was employed as the Director of Post-Conviction Litigation for the Center for Death Penalty Litigation (CDPL) and was actively engaged in the practice of law in Durham, Durham County, North Carolina.

The findings involved the work of several attorneys in connection with two affidavits.

As part of their strategy, these lawyers planned to call Bryan Stevenson, a lawyer and law professor, to testify about the harm caused to African-American jurors who are excluded from jury service. Because Mr. Stevenson’s study of jury selection did not include results from North Carolina, the defense interviewed African Americans excluded from jury service in Mr. Robinson’s case and, in some circumstances, asked excluded jurors to sign affidavits.

The criminal court found

In an order dated December 13, 2012, Judge Gregory A. Weeks found that “any immaterial inconsistencies between these affidavits and other record evidence, if they are inconsistencies, and the submission into evidence and representations of counsel regarding those affidavits, were not the product of intentional misconduct, willfulness, or bad faith on the part of any member of the defense team.”

Notwithstanding that conclusion, the State Bar brought disciplinary charges against this attorney and a colleague.

The commision here concluded that there was  a lack of proof on allegations of a lack of diligence and conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice.

Another hearing panel sustained (wrongfully in my view) the same charges against the colleague.

In my view, that result is impossible to reconcile with this dismissal.

Links to our earlier coverage here. (Mike Frisch)