ALABAMA: The law is interesting to me. In the recent Federal Court ruling in the case where Escambia County District Attorney and Escambia County Sheriff arrested journalist, the Federal Court made an interesting finding.
“A prosecutor is not entitled to absolute immunity when he ‘performs the investigative functions normally performed by a detective or police officer,’” Moorer wrote, noting that “Billy was participating in an investigation … and share the results of his investigation (with a sheriff’s deputy).”
This is very intresting to me. You have heard District Attorney’s and Attorney General’s say they are the “CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER” of the county or state. I have long disagreed. There are cases where the courts have ruled the Sheriff is the Chief Law Enforcement Officer and the District Attorney is the Chief Prosecutor.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall combined with ALEA and went to Birmingham and raided bingo places. According to the federal court ruling in this Escambia County case, well you can read the ruling of the court. The question is now, can prosecutors and attorney generals conduct investigations and share the results of the investigation?
Honestly, I do not know the answer. Some District Attorney Offices around Alabama have investigators. And some are needed in obtaining investigative information from law enforcement, locating witnesses and preparing the case for trial. There is a huge difference in “investigating the crime” and “preparing the case for trial”. No disrespect to law enforcement officers, but there is a huge difference in investigating the crime and organizing the case for trial.
Interesting questions.
Atmore Retaliation MTD by Rickey Stokes
