The Knuckleheads of the Day award

Today's winners are former Union County(North Carolina) District Attorney Kenneth Honeycutt and his assistant Scott Brewer. The North Carolina Bar Association has charged the both of them with prosecutorial misconduct.

The N.C. State Bar has charged a former district attorney and his assistant with prosecutorial misconduct in a 1996 murder case that ended in a death sentence.
The defendant, Jonathan Hoff-man, remains in Central Prison awaiting a court-ordered retrial after spending seven years on death row.

The bar filed the charges of prosecutorial misconduct last week against Kenneth Honeycutt, the former district attorney of Union County, and his assistant, Scott Brewer. The bar charged that Honeycutt and Brewer committed 23 violations of the rules that govern lawyers.

Honeycutt and Brewer lied to the trial judge, the jury and the defense attorneys, and knowingly used false evidence at the trial, the bar charged. If they are found guilty in a hearing before the bar, punishment could range from a written reprimand to the loss of their law licenses.

Honeycutt is a former president of the N.C. Conference of District Attorneys who retired as district attorney in October after an unsuccessful run for the state House of Representatives. Brewer is a District Court judge based in Rockingham.

Charles Brooks, who represents Honeycutt, said yesterday that he and his client plan to file an answer to the bar complaints that "will fully respond to the allegations." He declined additional comment.

Hoffman was sentenced to death for the robbery and killing of Danny Cook, a jewelry-store owner in Marshville, southeast of Charlotte. His case was the subject of a November 2003 article in the Raleigh News & Observer, and he won a new trial in April 2004.

The main witness against Hoffman was a cousin, Johnell Porter, who faced prison terms in South Carolina and federal pri-son. According to court papers and the complaint: Por-ter's sentences were reduced by 15 years; he was not prosecuted for at least 12 serious crimes in Char-lotte; and he got several thousand dollars in reward money.

The US Supreme Court has clearly ruled that immunity deals such sa with Mr. Porter must be revealed to court so jurors can weigh this during deliberation. Something Honeycutt and Brewer didn't do.

I am a supporter of the death penalty. At the same time I believe the prosecution has to follow all proper court procedures. Obviously here in the trial of Mr. Hoffman they weren't, Either of malfesiance or because of a slip-up. It don't matter which, it was the job of Kenneth Honeycutt and Scott Brewer to make sure it was done. For being careless with a man's life on the line, they are the Knuckleheads of the Day.

Hat tip- Indefensible. Open Trackback/Sunday Drive- Point Five and Outside the Beltway