On Tuesday, June 11, 2024, WLRN reported that the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office is facing criticism and calls for reform following reports of possible ethical misconduct by some prosecutors.
According to investigative reports by the Miami Herald, a former Miami-Dade prosecutor, Michael Von Zamft, was removed from a death penalty case after a judge ruled he and another prosecutor had improperly manipulated witness testimony to give the state an unfair advantage in court.
Separately, over the past decade, the State Attorney’s Office used a convicted murderer, William “Little Bill” Brown, to gather information on other defendants from inside the Miami-Dade jail system. Brown obtained confessions and details about defense strategies by arranging manufactured meetings with the accused criminals. In exchange, prosecutors gave Brown a plea deal of 25 years for two murders instead of pursuing the death penalty, according and media reports.
Criminal justice advocates argue these actions by prosecutors were improper and potentially unconstitutional. The Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, led by its Miami chapter president Lauren Field Krasnoff, has been investigating prosecutorial misconduct patterns in the office and is calling for independent oversight reforms.
Specifically, the FACDL is asking State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle to establish a prosecution integrity unit. This proposed independent committee would be responsible for investigating ethical complaints against prosecutors and would not include any current or former staffers from Fernandez Rundle’s office.
In an interview, Field Krasnoff stated the State Attorney’s Office cannot effectively police itself and has demonstrated the need for external accountability. Fernandez Rundle asked the FACDL to give her 45 days to consider the proposal.
Source: WLRN
