A likely story: An assistant district attorney works for 13-14 years in a NYC prosecutor’s office. He tries numerous cases, presents countless cases to the grand jury, and represents the district attorney’s office in multiple court appearances … until it’s revealed that he was never admitted to the New York bar as an attorney.

That scenario actually took place. Between 1977 and 1990, DP was an assistant DA in both the Kings County DA’s Office and the Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor. So what happened to all of those defendants with high hopes for retrials or vacated convictions? Their convictions went undisturbed after New York state’s highest court held that those defendants have no constitutional right to be prosecuted by an admitted attorney. Federal courts came to the same conclusion, both in matters involving DP and in a separate matter involving an assistant U.S. attorney who was suspended from practice. Other states have differed in their approaches to prosecutors with dicey bar status.

NY State Prosecutors

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