Sam Damren Authors Article that Appears in Criminal Law Practitioner

Samuel C. Damren, a member of Dykema’s Litigation Department resident in the Firm’s Detroit Office, authored a scholarly treatise—“The Special Responsibilities of the Prosecutor with respect to Crime Labs, Plea Agreements, Trial Evidence, Impaired Defense Counsel and Brady”—published in the Spring 2013 edition of Criminal Law Practitioner, a biannual publication of the American University Washington College of Law.

In the article, which focuses on prosecutorial ethics, Damren observes that in his nearly four decades of practicing law—first as a county, then federal, assistant prosecutor in Detroit; later as a civil litigator in private practice—the powers held by prosecutors today are “immense” and “vastly different” from his earliest days in the profession.

Damren expresses concern that the American Bar Association (ABA) Standards governing the “Special Responsibilities of the Prosecutor” have not kept pace with prosecutors’ expanded powers and need to be updated and amended to provide “a necessary check to prosecutorial abuses.” Among the areas that Damren suggests are ripe for overhaul: prosecutors’ proffer of expert testimony from crime labs;  and ethical rules for prosecutors that govern plea agreements, trial evidence, impaired defense counsel and Brady-styled disclosures.

To read this article in its entirety, click here.