Monday, February 09, 2009

Colorado Prosecutor Embarassed

An Associated Press story printed in today's Kansas City Star reports that Terence Gilmore and Jolene Blair--prosecutors who wrongly convicted Tim Masters--are embarassed. Despite their "embarassment," they have no trouble shifting the blame for their withholding of evidence to the defense.

From the Kansas City Star:

The former prosecutors, who are both now judges in the 8th Judicial District, told regulators in separate interviews in May that they didn't make any of the evidence secret. But they also claimed defense attorneys never asked for those records and didn't strongly cross-examine witnesses.

"It's very frustrating to look back on a case you tried 10 years ago and discover that there's all of this information that you never had," said Blair, who was assisting lead prosecutor Gilmore. "Would I have done it differently? Absolutely. I wish I knew now what I didn't know then."


Evidently, what Blair didn't know then was the statute-mandated responsibility of a prosecutor to seek the truth rather than just a conviction. And from the sound of it, Blair still seems kind of vague on that responsibility.

Blair and Gilmore, despite their central role in convicting an innocent man, remain as Colorado judges.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Gilmore and Blair should be far more than simply embarassed. IF they have any conscience, they would hang their heads in shame and resign.

I wonder. Aren't the people living in the 8th judicial district concerned enough to remove them? That should be without question!