Thread by @radleybalko

Here now, a thread of decrees I would issue if I were made king of the criminal justice system.

Feel free to reply and add your own.

-- If police say an informant is reliable and trustworthy in an affidavit (despite drug use, a criminal record, etc.), the courts will assume that same informant is reliable and trustworthy should he or she later accuse the police of lying or misconduct.

-- All else being equal, jailhouse informants cited by prosecutors to convict someone ("he confessed to me") should be given the same weight as jailhouse informants cited by defense attorneys to exonerate someone ("the real killer confessed to me")

-- Once a DA's office is shown to have committed misconduct that resulted in an innocent person's conviction of a serious crime like rape or murder, all death sentences won during that DA's tenure will be automatically commuted. (I'm looking at you, Robert Macy.)

-- Any evidence that police and prosecutors should have produced but was somehow lost or destroyed will be presumed to benefit the defendant.

-- The absolute and qualified immunity defenses to civil liability will be suspended for any infraction by a police officer or prosecutor that a court or jury has found to be an actual crime. (I'd abolish both, but this seems more than fair.)

-- Every "pattern-matching" forensic analyst must ace a proficiency test (match 100 bite marks, 100 fingerprints, 100 shoe prints, etc. to the correct person) before they can be certified as an expert witness.

-- Any prosecutor who wrongly convicts someone of a serious felony like rape or murder will be barred from prosecuting criminal cases. Yes, mistakes happen. But this is akin to a doctor amputating the wrong limb. You shouldn't get to come back from it. Maybe try bird law.

-- Same for any pattern matching forensic analyst who implicates someone who is later exonerated. You have one job, and that job has profound consequences. You mess up and ruin someone's life, you find another line of work.

-- Burdening the courts, police, or government in general will never be a reason to deny or limit constitutional rights. There is no "but only if it isn't too difficult for the government to comply" caveat to the Bill of Rights.

-- Any SCOTUS case in which a justice is found to have relied on a factually incorrect premise or statistic will be reheard.

Also, that justice only gets 1/2 a vote in the next term. (Kidding on this one. Maybe.)