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Attorney General Holder deserves kudos for enforcing ethics standards
By Lauren | April 6, 2009
Back in August, I wrote a post wondering whether the next President would take steps to enforce strong ethics at the Justice Department. It’s a pleasure to observe that the answer seems to be a resounding yes.
While never before expecting to praise the dismissal of public corruption charges against an elected official, I have to applaud Attorney General Eric Holder, Jr.’s choice to dismiss the Justice Department’s case against former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens. Holder took this unusual action when he discovered that prosecutors in the Stevens case had failed to provide Stevens’ defense team with potentially exculpatory evidence. It sends a clear message to Department of Justice attorneys that Attorney General Holder takes professional legal ethics so seriously that he’ll relinquish a high-profile “win” to maintain the integrity of the criminal justice system.
Prosecuting attorneys have an obligation not only to put criminals behind bars, but to ensure that the criminal justice system operates fairly and respects the constitutional rights of the accused. (This is not a small matter - no criminal defendant should be sent to jail solely because a prosecutor became more interested in winning a case than in upholding the Constitution.) One of a prosecutor’s responsibilities is to provide defense counsel with evidence that points toward a defendant’s innocence. A prosecutor’s failure to do so calls the integrity of the criminal justice system into serious question, which is why it’s worth dropping the charges against one defendant to keep the whole system operating as it should.
Holder’s bold move to restore the public’s trust in the Justice Department and its prosecutors couldn’t have come at a better time. The meltdown on Wall Street is almost certain to generate criminal suits as the Justice Department seeks to punish fraud in the financial system. Federal attorneys will be much more credible in prosecuting investment fraud if they adhere to high ethical standards themselves.
Topics: Business Ethics, Legal Ethics, Professional Ethics, ethics |