Court-Martial Trial Practice Blog
With the start of the new season the Supremes have issued its first Orders List comprising five pages-worth–mostly denials.
An observer poindts to,
In Kaur v. Maryland, No. 19–1045, Justice Sotomayor’s 5-page statement begins and ends this way:
Although I join the Court’s decision to deny certiorari, I write separately to address a concerning feature of this petition: The prosecutors who tried this case had extensive knowledge of defense counsel’s confidential communications with the defendant, petitioner Raminder Kaur. For the reasons stated below, I fear that, in this case, the criminal justice system failed to live up to its highest ideals….
Prosecutors wield an immense amount of power, and they do so in the name of the State itself. That unique privilege comes with the exceptional responsibility to ensure that the criminal justice system indeed serves the ends of justice. Prosecutors fall short of this task, and therefore do a grave disservice to the people in whose name they litigate, when they permit themselves to enjoy unfair trial advantages at defendants’ expense. Here, regardless of the reason for their acquisition of Kaur’s privileged information, and regardless of whatever minimum conduct was required of them by the Sixth Amendment, the prosecutors should have recused themselves from participating in Kaur’s second trial as a matter of professional conscience. Their failure to do so casts a troubling and unnecessary shadow over Kaur’s conviction and sentence to life imprisonment.