PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Teri Stoddard
Telephone: 301-801-0608
Email: tstoddard@prosecutorintegrity.org

Lawmakers Urged to Make Prosecutor Ethics the Focus of Criminal Justice Reform Efforts

WASHINGTON / April 30, 2014 – As state lawmakers begin to prepare for the November 4 elections, the Center for Prosecutor Integrity is urging elected officials to make prosecutor ethics the centerpiece of efforts to reform the criminal justice system. Nearly half of all wrongful convictions arise from the misconduct of prosecutors or other officials.

Prosecutor ethics will be the focus of the 2014 Innocence Summit, to be held June 20-21 in Washington DC.
Speakers at the Summit will include Jim Petro, former Attorney General of Ohio; Angela Davis, former director of the District of Columbia Public Defender Service; and Radley Balko, criminal justice reporter for the Washington Post.

The Innocence Summit will also offer interactive workshops on a range of topics such as Building Bridges for Statewide Criminal Justice Reform; the Registry of Prosecutorial Misconduct; and other topics.

The centerpiece of the Summit will be the development of an Agenda for Prosecutor Reform, with a focus on the upcoming November 4 elections. Many provisions of the Agenda for Prosecutor Reform will be useful in developing legislative agendas for 2015.

Lawmakers, criminal justice experts, and others are expected to attend. The Summit program and registration information can be viewed here: https://www.prosecutorintegrity.org/conference

“As a former district attorney, I’m convinced that prosecutorial reform needs to be the focus of efforts our current criminal justice system,” notes CPI chairman Phillip Kuhn. “Developing an Agenda for Prosecutor Reform is where the process needs to begin.”

The Center for Prosecutor Integrity is working to preserve the presumption of innocence and bring an end to wrongful convictions through the enhancement of prosecutor ethics.