Legal Ethics
Prosecutor Tells Newspaper He Tried to Help Defense Win Doubtful Case
Posted Jun 23, 2008, 08:06 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
A New York prosecutor who says he was directed to defend a murder prosecution despite his reservations admits that he did his best to help the defense win the case.
Daniel Bibb, who worked under District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, told the New York Times he discussed strategy with defense lawyers and prepared witnesses to testify for the defense.
“I did the best I could,” Bibb told the newspaper. “To lose.”
The two defendants, Olmedo Hidalgo and David Lemus, are now free. The prosecutor’s office finally sought dismissal of charges, with success, against one, Hidalgo, after the six-week hearing that Bibb says he threw to the defense. The other, Lemus, was acquitted in a retrial. They had originally been convicted in the shooting death of a bouncer outside the Palladium nightclub.
Bibb is now a private defense lawyer. Morgenthau’s office wouldn’t comment on Bibb’s claims, but chief assistant district attorney Daniel Castleman told the newspaper that the office does not require prosecutors to proceed against defendants they believe to be innocent.
One legal ethics expert, Stephen Gillers, says Bibb should have withdrawn from the case or quit. “His conscience does not entitle him to subvert his client’s case,” Gillers told the Times.
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