Va. Bar Drops Ethics Case Over Letter Advising Jurors to Keep Quiet

The Virginia State Bar has dropped ethics charges against a lawyer in the state Attorney General’s office who oversaw a letter discouraging jurors in capital cases from speaking to defense lawyers during appeals.

Ethics charges against Katherine Baldwin Burnett have “quietly died,” the Washington Post reports. Burnett is the senior assistant attorney general who oversees the state's capital litigation unit.

Burnett’s office asks local prosecutors to distribute the letter advising capital jurors that defense lawyers may misrepresent themselves and jurors shouldn’t cooperate unless they speak first to the prosecutor. Ethics rules bar lawyers from discouraging jurors from speaking to the opposing side, the story says.

Special bar counsel John Oakey Jr. told the Post he moved to dismiss the charges because legal precedent persuaded him he didn’t have a case against Burnett.

Burnett’s lawyer, Craig Cooley, told the Post the letter will be changed to clarify that it's up to jurors to decide whether to speak to defense lawyers.