The Mail

Stephanie Clifford, in her eye-opening piece about the former New York Police Department detective Peter Forcelli and the wrongful-conviction case of Edward Garry, which is winding its way through the judicial system, says that “there is no manual that Forcelli could write that would stop police departments from pressuring detectives for results or prosecutors from taking on dubious cases” (“A Shot to the Heart,” October 24th). Actually, such a manual does exist for prosecutors: the American Bar Association’s Model Rules of Professional Conduct, which has been adopted by more than a dozen states in the country, including New York. One rule states that the prosecutor in a criminal case “shall refrain from prosecuting a charge that the prosecutor knows is not supported by probable cause.” In the Garry case, prosecutors are violating this cardinal rule of ethics by continuing to fight his appeal, despite plentiful evidence of his innocence. This happens far too often when pressure to arrest and quickly prosecute a perpetrator is overwhelming.