Job Choice after Wrongful Conviction

This guy, after spending a long time in prison for a murder he did not commit, is about to graduate from law school. He wants to work as a prosecutor. You might think that he would want to be a defense lawyer, but he wants to make sure that the police do their jobs.

It's a noble aspiration, but I'm not sure it's going to work. I imagine that he will have a fair amount of sympathy and compassion for some people his office prosecutes. What happens when his supervisor tells him that he must make an offer that involves jail time, or perhaps leaves a permanent felony conviction when he doesn't think it's right. Will he quit, or will he just go along? I would like to see CNN do a follow up story in this fellow in about five years.

Comments

[anoin]

He probably won’t get hired anyway. Most prosecutors offices would have hired rookies already. They didn’t make him an offer. The very fact that he was targeted by the police (and the prosecutor) indicates that he is not of the social type that the prosecutors office likes.

[Sanchovilla]

I'm not so sure they wouldn't hire him. I hadn't heard this story before today, I'm really interested to see where he is a year from now and if he's become a DA, find out what kind of a DA he's turned into.

[la lawyer]

oh dear, looks like you got spammed. I hate that.

I agree, it seems like a path that is wrought with pitfalls. It would be interesting to see an update. Perhaps you should send something in to Dateline. With the "Predator" episodes we have been subjected to ad nauseum lately, it seems like they could use some ideas.

[bandwidthbill]

If the process of denying him work as a prosecutor was in any way impacted by his wrongful conviction, it seems to me like the system has added insult to injury. He's been exonerated of any wrongdoing and any presumptions about his discretion or prosecutorial judgments should not be affected by the wrongful conviction. He should have a clean slate. At the very least, someone who has served substantial jail time for a crime he didn't commit deserves a clean slate.