The
Supreme Court of Delaware voted unanimously on July 27 to
suspend former Deputy Attorney General
R. David Favata as
a result of his misconduct during a recent capital trial. With a single
dissent as to the length of the suspension, the Court banned Favata
from the practice of law for six months and one day for intentional
misconduct during the capital trial of
Isaiah McCoy. Earlier this year, the state Supreme Court
overturned McCoy's conviction and death sentence and
ordered a new trial because of Favata's misconduct. The court found
that Favata had committed seven distinct ethical violations in McCoy's
case, including vouching for the testimony of a key government
witness, repeatedly belittling McCoy as he attempted to represent
himself at trial, and lying to the judge about attempting to intimidate
McCoy. At one point, Favata objected to defense questioning of the
victim's girlfriend and during the objection told the jury that McCoy
had "shot her boyfriend." During a break in the proceedings, Favata
commented in front of McCoy about a mafia code of silence, and said he
would put a detective back on the stand to tell everyone that McCoy was a
snitch. After McCoy raised the matter with the court, Favata lied about
making these comments, prompting a court officer to pass a note to the
judge saying that McCoy was telling the truth. Favata also repeatedly
disparaged McCoy's attempt to represent himself, saying "The trouble
with dealing with somebody with a limited education and no legal
education is he doesn't clearly understand what he's reading." The
prosecutor also demeaned McCoy by telling him to "start acting lke a
man" and criticizing his attire, saying "You can dress him up. He’s
still a murderer.” The case was the second time since 2014 that Delaware
courts granted a new trial for prosecutorial misconduct in a capital
case. In May 2014,
Jermaine Wright won
a new trial after 21 years on death row when prosecutors and police
withheld exculpatory evidence about possible alternate suspects in a
case in which no forensic or eyewitness evidence linked Wright to the
crime.
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