McKinney Case Sparks Concern

* Of all the possible arguments against the death penalty, the one that is most compelling to me is the possibility of executing an innocent person as the result of prosecutorial or jury error.

Now on Jan. 29 we learn that new evidence has forced Orange County Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas to recommend the release of Dwayne McKinney, imprisoned 18 years for a murder he did not commit.

Rackauckas was the lead prosecutor at the trial. He admits, “There’s always a possibility that a jury can be wrong or that the prosecution can be wrong. It’s a judgment call.”

But in spite of that admission, he sees no reason to alter his staunch support of the death penalty.

I find his stance incredible. If the jury in McKinney’s case had not deadlocked on the death penalty, he would probably have died long ago.

But Rackauckas doesn’t seem to be bothered by that fact, or the even more frightening possibility that police misconduct such as that being uncovered in the Los Angeles Police Department could result in innocent people being executed.

I realize that it would be difficult for the district attorney to be reelected in Orange County if he expressed reservations about the death penalty, but is he really willing to sacrifice a few innocent people in the name of political ambition? Shame on him!

WILLIAM A. McINTYRE

San Clemente

* It looks as if a man imprisoned by Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas for murder 18 years ago will finally walk free.

What Deputy Dist. Atty. Rackauckas did then is being undone now because of efforts of the Orange County public defender’s office. The review it initiated--even reviewed again by the district attorney’s office’s investigators--raises questions.

During the years McKinney was caged, his prosecutor parlayed wins into a judgeship followed by election as district attorney.

Last summer, Los Amigos of Orange County sent several letters requesting meetings with the district attorney about prosecutorial behavior in current cases. They were ignored.

Then we sent a California Public Records Act request for copies of any Orange County district attorney’s office written standards of professional conduct. Rackauckas had the head of his felony division reply to us that there were none.

At a December 1999 Santa Ana meeting with the California attorney general, attended by local Vietnamese and Latino leaders, the exchange of correspondence was mentioned.

The attorney general expressed surprise, and an Orange County deputy district attorney present suggested that indeed there were standards. A follow-up letter and phone call to that deputy went unanswered.

A letter to the attorney general brought a subordinate’s two-page explanation that would have made a reference librarian proud. It suggested everything from the Bill of Rights to Bar Assn. rules as relating to standards of prosecutorial conduct, a groaning buffet of legalese.

AMIN DAVID

Chairman, Los Amigos

of Orange County

Anaheim