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A USA TODAY investigation:


Misconduct at the Justice Department

Prosecutorial misconduct series


methodology and panel of experts
Updated 9/22/2010 9:44 PM | Comment | Recommend 3 E-mail | Save | Print |

For this series, USA TODAY used legal databases such as LexisNexis and PACER to review tens of
thousands of pages of judicial opinions, court dockets and other records filed in federal criminal cases
since Jan. 1, 1998.

Reporters identified more than 200 cases in which courts threw out convictions or publicly rebuked
prosecutors for misconduct, then had the list screened by a team of law professors, criminal attorneys and
former prosecutors to ensure that the prosecutors' actions qualified as misconduct.

The final list, available at justice.usatoday.com, includes only those cases agreed to by the experts who
reviewed them. Each case included in USA TODAY's tally was reviewed by at least four independent
experts.

The newspaper excluded dozens of other cases because experts thought the allegations of misconduct
were less serious, or because courts dismissed any missteps as harmless errors.

USA TODAY also reviewed detailed tracking information about more than 675,000 criminal cases filed in
federal district courts since 1998, using the Justice Department's caseload management databases.

USA TODAY's legal experts

Alexander Bennett Stephen Joseph Laurie


Bunin Gershman Gillers Lawless Levenson
The federal public A law professor at A professor and The author of one of A professor at Loyola
defender for the Pace University in former vice dean at the first textbooks on Law School in Los
Northern District of New York, New York prosecutorial Angeles, Levenson
New York, Bunin Gershman is one of University's law misconduct, Lawless specializes in
tracks overturned the nation's leading school, Gillers is a practices law in criminal law. She
federal convictions authorities on legal ethics expert. Philadelphia, was a prosecutor in
nationwide. He prosecutorial He is the author of specializing in white- the U.S. Attorney's
teaches criminal trial misconduct and has Regulation of collar criminal cases. office in Los Angeles
practice at Albany written two books on Lawyers: Problems He is a former from 1981 to 1989,
Law School. prosecutorial and of Law and Ethics, a assistant district where she was a
judicial ethics. He is widely used attorney. deputy chief of the
a former prosecutor casebook, and sits criminal division.
for the Manhattan on several American
district attorney's Bar Association
office. committees.

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http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/judicial/methodology-federal-prosecutor-misconduct.htm Page 1 of 2
Prosecutorial misconduct series methodology and panel of experts - USATODAY.com 10/7/10 12:07 AM

Posted 9/22/2010 12:21 PM

Updated 9/22/2010 9:44 PM E-mail | Save | Print |

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