Yesterday, in State v. Mitchell, the Minnesota Court of Appeals threw out a drug related conviction due to prosecutorial misconduct by the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office. Specifically, the Court found that the injection of race into a trial by the prosecution was grounds for a new trial when the case had nothing at all to do with race. Congratulations to the Court of Appeals for holding prosecutors accountable for shady tactics.
Additionally, the court rebuked the judge in the case for explicitly punishing the defendant for exercising his right to a trial. While we know that this sort of things happens frequently, its nice to see the court sending a strong message to judges that this is not acceptable and will not be tolerated.
