Ethics and professional responsibility in criminal justice

Ethics and Professional Responsibility of Criminal Justice Professionals

constitution and the Federal laws have established certain rules and code of conduct for people working in the criminal justice system. Despite these laws, there have been cases of unprofessional behavior by the prosecutors and a violation of ethics and code of conduct. A good case in point is Miller vs. Pate (1967). In this case, a person was convicted of rape-murder because of the presence of blood stains on his pants and this blood was established as that of the victim's. Later, it was proved to be just paint and the prosecution knew this from the beginning. According to the fourteenth amendment of the U.S. constitution, false evidence cannot be accepted in a court of law. This case shows that this has been violated by the prosecution. There have been cases where the physical evidence was false or the circumstantial evidence was made-up by the prosecution. Tampering of evidence by the prosecution has been going on for several decades.

Why is there a violation of the professional code of conduct?

The primary aim of prosecution is to win the case and not to ensure that the innocent is freed and the guilty is punished. In the case of Berger vs. United States (1935), the prosecutor was found guilty of misconduct in terms of his presentation, cross-examination as well as his arguments. With the aim to win the case, many prosecutors are bending the law and finding loop-holes in it to further their self-interest. Besides reputation and ego, money is also another reason that can force prosecutors to behave unethically.

What needs to be done?

Though many courts have ruled against this behavior, sadly, it still goes on. "The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals based in Atlanta stated in Malautea vs. Suzuki Motor co., 987 F. 2d1536 (1993): 'All attorneys as officers of the court, owe duties of complete candor and primary loyalty to the court before which they practice. An attorney's duty to a client can never outweigh his or her responsibility to see that our system of justice functions smoothly. This concept is as old as common law jurisprudence itself.'" (Aspen, 1997, p.95).

The primary step is to change the mindset of lawyers. They have to stop believing that they run the show and instead focus them as members of a team along with the judge to ensure that the legal system works for the innocent people in the right direction. Its important that every lawyer strikes a balance between his or her obligations to the clients and the justice system.

As a supplement, more stringent laws should be implemented and the actions of the prosecution should come under closer scrutiny to ensure that they will abide by the ethics and professional code of conduct as laid down by the lawmakers.

Plan for administrators

"Few problems can pose a greater threat to free, democratic societies than that of wrongful conviction -- the conviction of an innocent person. Yet relatively little attention has been paid to this problem, perhaps because of our understandable concern with the efficiency and effectiveness of the criminal justice system in combatting crime." (Huff, Rattner, Sagarin, MacNamara, 1986, p.518). To prevent the continuous presence of this problem, administrators should take some steps to curb them.