Courtroom Misconduct Case Study

One morning, December 29, 1991, the nude body of a woman, Kim Ancona, was discovered on the floor of the men’s restroom catastrophically stabbed with little to no evidence found from the perpetrator. Police depended on bite markings on the victim’s neck and breast. Witnesses reported that the victim told a close friend that Ray Krone, a regular customer, was to help her close up the bar she was working at the night before. Police requested an impression of Krone’s teeth to compare to the markings found on the victim. Krone was charged with murder, sexual assault, and kidnapping. He though maintained his innocence, declaring he was asleep at the time of the murder, Krone was convicted by the jury on the counts of kidnapping and murder. He was

This can range from courtroom misconduct to threatening or tampering with witnesses. According to Center for Prosecutor Integrity (CPI), the most common times of violations done by prosecutors are:

“Failure to disclose exculpatory evidence, use of inadmissible or false evidence/lack of candor to the court, plea bargain offense, inflammatory statements/witness harassment, mischaracterizing the evidence, and vouching.” Prosecutors have ethical mandates that they must obey, if not, that is where the misconduct comes in. And act of prosecutorial misconduct will violate both legal and professional codes (prosectorialsaccountabilty.com). Levy, the prosecutor in Krone’s case, helped send and innocent man to dead row for something he did not commit. Levy found experts who said that the bite markings on the victim matched Krone’s teeth impressions. “The State’s discovery violation related to critical evidence in the case against the accused,” the Arizona Supreme Court ruled when it tossed the case (Kiefer 2013). According to Kiefer, “Discover” refers to evidence that the opposing attorneys are supposed to make available to the other side before trial. Levy (the prosecutor that was in Krone’s case) has been accused of many other misconducts of other