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Bad Faith Exception To Prosecutorial Immunity For Brady Violations, Bennett L. Gershman
Bad Faith Exception To Prosecutorial Immunity For Brady Violations, Bennett L. Gershman
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
Part I of this Article discusses Imbler’s adoption of absolute immunity for prosecutors. Part II discusses Imbler’s extension of absolute immunity to a prosecutor’s violation of his disclosure duty under Brady v. Maryland. Part III describes the ease with which prosecutors are able to evade the Brady rule and the difficulty of enforcing compliance with Brady. Part IV discusses the absence of any meaningful sanctions to deter and punish prosecutors for willful violations of Brady. Part V proposes a bad faith exception to absolute immunity of prosecutors for Brady violations.
The Prosecutor's Obligation To Grant Defense Witness Immunity, Bennett L. Gershman
The Prosecutor's Obligation To Grant Defense Witness Immunity, Bennett L. Gershman
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
The author enumerates the three most common situations in which the courts have required the prosecutor to offer immunity to defense witnesses: (1) to safeguard the defendant's right to essential exculpatory testimony; (2) where the use of the prosecutor's powers to grant immunity causes such distortion in the fact-finding process as to require granting immunity to defense witnesses; and (3) where immunity is required to remedy prosecutory misconduct such as the intimidation of witnesses. The use of the "missing witness" instruction to avoid reaching the constitutional issue is also discussed.