View Video | Voices from the Rwanda Tribunal

Beth Lyons
speaks on ...

lack of principle at the prosecution office

Transcript0:00
I feel that while I’ve encountered prosecutors who are principled as individuals, in general, I have been really shocked by the lack of principle of the Prosecutor’s Office whether we’re talking about the Prosecution Office in a major city or we’re talking about the Prosecution Office here.
0:24
And it filters down. Obviously not every prosecutor thinks the same way. I’m talking about policies of the Prosecution Office. I have, I just believe that the prosecution, I mean, even, even, you know, in a place like New York City, you know, the prosecution in, in New York City, as a policy certainly doesn’t know the weight of a case.
0:50
I mean it’s clear from the indictments. It’s clear from the cases come through arraignments, they – and it’s clear from the offers they make at arraignments. They don’t know the weight of a case. So their sense of what they’re doing is totally skewed. They have no judgment. And it's not the individual 25-year-old assistant DA who’s standing up in the middle of the night because it’s his, he or she has no seniority.
1:10
But I’m telling you, the policy comes from that office and that senior person and I have, and I mean I couldn’t work. I, I couldn’t work, there’s, there’s no principle. There’s no adhesion in general to the law and the principles of law, and there’s no (__), and, and depending on where it is and, and where the offices are – there is no, there is no diligent effort to apply the rule of law equally.
1:37
And that’s true. That’s the argument here, failure to prosecute the RPF. But it’s true in, in, in various state and, and smaller jurisdictions. I mean, not every one, but it’s rare that you, you would, one would find. And I haven’t been to every place, but I’m looking for some fairness and some accountability and some equal application of the rule of law.