Kenneth Peasley

Defense counsel rarely refer prosecutors to the state bar on ethics charges. In a rare instance where a defense counsel, Rick Lougee, did so against Ken Peasley, Peasley was named Prosecutor of the Year for a second time and received national awards. “Judges rallied around him,” and he went across the state “to train other prosecutors” – whereas Lougee “was shunned by the legal community for having made the accusation.” Lougee had acted after discovering (before his capital client’s retrial) that “Peasley conspired to present false testimony.” Moreover, Peasley had, at the retrial of another defendant (who was returned to death row) and at the retrial of Lougee’s client (who was acquitted), “repeated the perjury.” After using an informant to get death sentences against three men (two of whose retrials have just been mentioned), Peasley falsely claimed that “police knew nothing of the defendants until the informant brought them up.” He “lied to the judge and the jury and encouraged a witness to commit perjury.” Eventually, after seven years, the state Bar found Lougee’s allegations to be valid, and Peasley (who had prosecuted over 60 capital cases) was disbarred.

From page 329 of The State of Criminal Justice 2015, by the America Bar Association, via here.

Kenneth Peasley was part of an attempt to frame Paul Huebl.

Juan Martinez Known for Misconduct

Robert J. Smith is a law professor at the University of North Carolina, whose work was cited in Justice Breyer’s dissent on June 29, 2015.

Jodi Ann Arias - Innocent in Arizona

“Gallagher’s colleague in the district attorney’s office, Juan Martinez, has a comparable record. He once likened a Jewish defense lawyer to “Adolf Hitler” and his “Big Lie,” a tactic the Arizona Supreme Court deemed “reprehensible.” One judge noted of Martinez: “You’re at war, almost nuclear war, the minute you come up against him.” The recent trial of Jodi Arias, a woman who claimed that she killed her boyfriend in self-defense, was a rare case in which Martinez failed to secure a death sentence. When defense counsel Jennifer Willmott asserted that the victim had been suicidal, he responded: “If Ms. Willmott and I were married, I certainly would say, I fucking want to kill myself.” The Arizona Supreme Court has found his behavior, like Gallagher’s, to constitute prosecutorial misconduct.

From America’s Deadliest Prosecutors by By Robert J. Smith, May 14, 2015

Note: Robert J. Smith is a law professor at the University…

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