Federal prosecutors this week began presenting to jurors their death penalty case against an inmate who killed his cellmate because he was a child molester.
But recent court filings disclose that the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility is investigating prosecutors who initially handled the case. This includes one prosecutor who jokingly suggested to an inmate that he would be rewarded if he were to stab one of the defendant's lawyers, a court filing said.
Brian Richardson, his face and shaved head covered with tattoos, stands trial for the April 7, 2008, killing of Steven Obara inside the U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta. Richardson is serving a 65-year sentence for armed bank robberies; Obara was serving 10 years for possessing child pornography and child molestation.
Richardson told FBI agents he hated pedophiles. With a knife fashioned from a fire extinguisher pin, Richardson stabbed Obara repeatedly before choking him with his hands and strangling him with a sock.
Obara had wound up in the wrong cell with the wrong inmate, Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill McKinnon told jurors Wednesday in opening statements. "He was murdered because of who he was -- a child molester."
Richardson's lawyer, Jake Waldrop, told jurors Richardson is not guilty of first-degree murder. He asked jurors to consider lesser murder or manslaughter charges, which would not subject Richardson to the death penalty.
Last month, Richardson's defense team sought to bar the death penalty from being a sentencing option in the case because of alleged misconduct by two prosecutors who once worked on the case -- Todd Alley and Matthew Jackson, both of whom no longer work in the U.S. attorney's office in Atlanta.
Jackson's alleged misconduct occurred in 2010 during a recorded phone conversation he had with an inmate expected to testify for the prosecution against Richardson. During the call, Jackson jokingly suggested to the witness that he should try to stab a member of Richardson's defense team and said he would reward the inmate for killing the defense attorney, the motion said.
"Even if said in jest," the defense motion said, "it was unethical and unprofessional and revealed a lack of judgment that no doubt infected Mr. Jackson's dealings with other inmate witnesses seeking to strike a bargain with the government."
Jackson, now a federal prosecutor in Florida, did not return phone calls seeking comment.
Alley's alleged misconduct occurred after U.S. District Judge Clarence Cooper disqualified him after finding Alley had or appeared to have a personal interest in the case because an inmate was alleging that Richardson had made threats to kill Alley. In his disqualification order, Cooper forbid Alley from participating "in any prosecutorial decision-making or strategizing in this matter."
Alley violated the order by having phone conversations with Jack Morris, who was expected to testify about Richardson's threats against Alley, the defense motion said. This included Alley giving Morris a cover story to keep other inmates from thinking Morris was cooperating with prosecutors, the motion said.
On Thursday, Alley, now a private attorney, declined to comment.
In its own court filing, the U.S. attorney's office acknowledged the defense team had raised "troubling issues." But it opposed the request to bar the death penalty, saying it replaced Alley and Jackson with a new trial team and would not call Morris as a witness.
"Those remedies ensure that [Richardson] will receive a fair determination of both guilt and punishment in this case," the U.S. attorney's office said.
Last week, Cooper denied the motion to preclude the government from seeking the death penalty.
On Thursday, U.S. Attorney Sally Yates said her office moved quickly to address the matter and had referred the issue to the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility for investigation and evaluation.
"Our office is committed to ensuring that every case is handled in a manner that reflects not only our commitment to seeking justice but also our adherence to the highest ethical and professional standards," Yates said. "That's why as soon as we learned of the alleged conduct, we removed the entire prosecution team from the case."
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