09/11/08 (CO):
Supreme Court Censures Judges
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Colorado's Supreme Court has censured two former prosecutors for failing to turn over information to attorneys for a man who served 10 years in prison on a first-degree murder conviction before he was freed.
Timothy Masters was convicted in 1999 in the 1987 slaying of a Fort Collins woman, Peggy Hettrick. He was released in January after advanced DNA tests failed to connect him to the killing and months of hearings raised questions about how the case was prosecuted.
Terrance A. Gilmore and Jolene C. Blair, both now judges in Colorado's 8th Judicial District, prosecuted the case. In an agreement with the Supreme Court's Office of Attorney Regulation, both acknowledged failing to ensure defense attorneys received several key pieces of information obtained by police that called into question Masters' guilt. Prosecutors failed to gather the information from police despite indications that it existed.
The censure amounts to a public rebuke, said John Gleason, counsel for the attorney regulation office.
Defense attorney Erik Fischer said the censure vindicates Masters and the efforts of Fischer and co-defense attorney Nathan Chambers.
"If we would have had the evidence that was withheld from us, there's no doubt in my mind that Tim Masters would have been exonerated at the trial," Fischer said.
"This case illustrates the danger to society when police departments and prosecution teams fail to do their constitutional duty and make sure the defendant and the defendant's counsel receive full disclosure of the evidence."
Among the pieces of evidence cited by the Office of Attorney Regulation as not being turned over are hundreds of pages of notes used by a forensic psychologist to form opinions about violent drawings found in Masters' bedroom. Police and prosecutors used this report to buttress their circumstantial case against Masters, but his attorneys did not have all of the information, which they could have used to cross-examine the expert.
Other information not turned over included police consultations with other experts, including one who pointed to another potential suspect.
Masters was released after DNA tests requested by his post-conviction defense counsel found the profiles of three men, including an ex-boyfriend, on Hettrick's clothing. None of the DNA belonged to Masters.
A separate investigation of police and prosecutor conduct by a special prosecutor found no criminal wrongdoing.
© X-Pro 2008
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