MANSFIELD: Taking Off the Gloves in the Prosecutor’s Race

Taking Off the Gloves in the Prosecutor’s Race

By Mansfield Frazier

Last week I finished off by writing that one of the candidates for county prosecutor is so conservative, that if he were elected, people would soon wish to have Bill Mason back. Of course some folks might respond that, given the extent of social disorder we are constantly bombarded with, having a tough, no-nonsense prosecutor is exactly what the county needs… and I wholeheartedly agree. Those knuckleheads who pose a danger to society have to be dealt with swiftly and harshly enough to protect the citizenry. But “swift” and “sure” punishment still has to fit the definition of “fair” — and it’s in the final category in which people around the county will disagree… sometimes vehemently.

Allow me to briefly revisit John T. Corrigan and his legacy. A group of young assistant prosecutors who worked under him were indeed so brutal in their dispensation of what they called “justice” they were dubbed the “Hitler Youth” by members of the local defense bar. No, I’m not making this up; ask just about any criminal defense attorney who was practicing in Cuyahoga County in the ’80s and ’90s.

At the head of the pack wasn’t an Irishman, but an Italian, Carmen Marino. In 2007 Roldo Bartimole wrote: “The PD reported that Carmine Marino, one of Corrigan’s chief prosecutors, was rebuked in several federal court decisions ‘for flouting the rules, hiding key evidence and even lying in court to win convictions’ in murder cases.”

Roldo continued… “Judge Daniel Gaul said of Marino’s work, ‘It’s nothing but one deceitful act after another… To permit anyone to be put to death after being prosecuted by Carmen Marino would be so ethically inappropriate you’d almost be culpable yourself.’” Wow.

So what does Bill Mason do when this scumbag retires? He does the moral equivalent of poking Lady Justice in the eye with a sharp stick by establishing a Carmen Marino Award. I can only suppose the award was established to disabuse any notion there might be even a scintilla of doubt extant in the Prosecutor’s Office regarding the men sent to Death Row based in part on dubious or questionable evidence allegedly manufactured by Marino. Rumor has it that the recipient of the Carmen Marino Award also receives a framed, signed photograph of this alleged rouge assistant prosecutor trampling the Bill of Rights under foot… but, alas, that last part is merely unsubstantiated rumor.

This, then, is the prosecutorial culture one candidate, retired Judge Timothy J. McGinty, wants to win election to change; however, many Justice Center observers say the change would be for the worse — and some say far worse. Indeed, many members of the bar say that he was a gleeful member of that aforementioned fascist-like cabal of brutish prosecutors.

While the former judge is known to be a critic of the slow pace in which cases are disposed of in Common Pleas Court, one attorney said that McGinty only wants to improve procedures so he can send people to prison more expeditiously… not do what prosecutors across the country seemingly have lost sight of — to be seekers of truth and justice.

No attorney, however, would speak for attribution — because of fear of retribution. But another quipped, “Yeah, he might make cases move through the system faster — hell, Mussolini made the trains run on time — but will that make for fairer outcomes?”

McGinty, who supposedly has a ton of his money to throw at the race (few, if any defense attorneys would contribute to his campaign since many are privately fearful that if he’s elected, attorneys who he feels have “crossed” him will wind up indicted on weak or trumped up charges), will undoubtedly play the “tough-on-crime” card to the hilt.

However, as Harvard Law Professor William J. Stuntz writes in his brilliant new book, The Collapse of American Criminal Justice, crime actually goes up, not down, when prosecutors are perceived to be unfair or overzealous. He posits that young men in every country, society and culture know when the “punishment fits the crime” and when it’s being dispensed evenhandedly. They also know when defendants are being treated unfairly.

So, while McGinty might attempt to scare the electorate into voting for him for their own protection… he really can’t deliver on the promise of making anyone safer by introducing harsher, more punitive and increasingly brutal measures.

The prosecutor’s race is going to come down to defining what kind of county we want to live in. Do we want increased suppression of rights and violations of due process… or do we want real reform, which means a total break from the rigged system of justice that has dominated the county for the last half century?

From Cool Cleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available again in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author by visiting http://www.neighborhoodsolutionsinc.com.