Is This Sending the Wrong Message to Students?

In 2007 following a Halloween party at a local club 

attended by students of Morehouse College (located in

Atlanta,  Joshua Brandon Norris was thrown out of 

the club for causing  trouble (specifics not stated in the 

CNN report.) 

Shortly thereafter Norris and Rashad Johnson had 

an altercation in the parking lot and from inside

his car, Norris shot Johnson three times.

Here is the part that is hard to fathom. Norris 

pleaded no contest to aggravated assault with 

a deadly weapon (a serious felony that carried 

a long period of incarceration.) At the 

recommendation of the prosecutor who 

is no longer in office, the judge sentenced him

to 6-years of probation, $1000 fine, and 

240 hours of community service. Included in the

terms of the plea was a requirement that Norris

remain in college and get his degree.

This past week-end Joshua Brandon Norris sat with 

his fellow graduates and received his diploma 

while his victim, who was also a Morehouse student, lives in

California with his mother and is not said to be in college.

Is it any wonder that citizens question the workings 

of the criminal justice system?

Prosecutors have ultimate discretion in when and 

whether to offer a plea agreement. They also have 

total discretion in whether or not to bring a case 

to trial and what evidence to offer the jury. This 

discretion has led to many instances of injustice 

including nearly all of the exonerations that the 

Innocent Project has worked to achieve.

As citizens we need to begin to question whether 

our laws need to change so that knowingly ignoring 

exculpatory evidence or allowing unreliable 

testimony at a trial carries a severe penalty for the 

prosecutor. 

Today there are no sanctions beyond a few words 

in a rare appellate decision that points to prosecutorial 

misconduct.

Let's see if bringing the Norris case into the spotlight 

will result in any changes in the system itself. Texas 

restricts the ability of a jury to give a probated sentence 

for certain offenses. The time has come for the law 

to restrict the ability of the prosecutor to offer 

probation for these same offenses without an open record reason.