TheAgitator.com
Accountability in the Offing?
Thursday, April 10th, 2008Here’s some rare good news on the accountability front: A judge and commissioner in Indiana are being investigated and may be disciplined for taking over two years to release a man who had been wrongly convicted of rape.
Harold Buntin served 11 years in prison before a DNA test exonerated him of the rape for which he was accused. The poor guy then served another two years while the judge and commissioner sat on their hands.
Discipline can range from a reprimand to suspension without pay to removal from office. . .
Henry Karlson, a professor of criminal law at Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis, said a reprimand or suspension seemed a more likely option in the Hawkins and Broyles cases.
So the maximum penalty is removal from office, and the actual penalty is likely signficantly less severe in a case that resulted in two years additional imprisonment for an innocent man?
Certainly it’s better than nothing, but as a demonstration of “accountability,” it’s not very satisfying.
There’s a case here in Marietta Ohio.A sheriff’s deputy is accused of domestic abuse and later hitting a person on duty.He is being offered resignation and no other punishment.Typical.