'No-snitch' argument untrue, damaging to trust in law enforcement

LAST week, the Washington State Supreme Court reversed a murder conviction obtained by our office. The legal ground for the reversal was prosecutorial misconduct — a senior deputy prosecuting attorney for King County made racially charged comments during closing argument.

As the leader of the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office, I apologize for this unprofessional, embarrassing and harmful conduct. We will retry the murder case and see that justice is done for the victim, his family and the community.

The case concerned the trial of a defendant who shot another man in the middle of the street on First Avenue and Yesler Way in Seattle. At that trial four years ago, numerous witnesses to the murder were compelled to testify in court. Although the crime was captured on video, the witnesses were uncooperative, denied what was obvious on the video and changed the accounts they told police on the night of the crime.

The senior deputy prosecuting attorney, in closing argument, tried to sum up what had happened in that courtroom for the jurors. In a regrettable and reversible error, he said that the "no snitch" code meant that "black folks don't testify against black folks."

This statement is untrue and offensive. We know from experience that the "no snitch" ethic is not confined to any particular race or background. We see it commonly across a wide range of cases that we handle. On the other hand, we also see witnesses of all races and backgrounds participate fully in the criminal-justice system, fulfilling an important civic duty that keeps us all safe and protects our constitutional rights.

Compounding the error, the statement has the unfortunate and ironic effect of further eroding trust in the criminal-justice system. By decrying the "no snitch" ethic in this manner, the senior deputy prosecutor created yet another reason for some to believe that our justice system is biased and racist.

When I became aware of this issue, which was not raised at trial, we instituted a new round of training on prosecutorial misconduct in the office. While the arguments of attorneys are not evidence, the words chosen by prosecutors undergo close scrutiny; they must be fair to the defendant.

The "no snitch" ethic is the ultimate repudiation of our justice system — a directive not to participate as a cooperating witness or victim, and if forced to testify, to lie to protect the defendant. This ethic would cause some to circumvent the courtroom by taking justice into their own hands, which leads inevitably to more violence and death.

Every encounter between a citizen and a police officer, prosecutor, judge or defense attorney is an opportunity to either increase faith and trust in our system of justice or to erode it further. We are dismayed that a senior deputy prosecutor in our office eroded that faith in our criminal-justice system.

It has affected all of us and is a stain on the hard work done every day by the entire staff in the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office to build confidence in the criminal-justice system.

As the county's prosecuting attorney, I make this commitment: I will work hard each day to increase the trust of the community in our criminal-justice system and assure that the harm done by this conduct will never be repeated by this office.