How to Build a Justice System That Allows Professional Dissent to Prevent Error Before It Is Too Late

On August 17, 2026, Gothamist published a disturbing investigation into one of New York’s most serious wrongful-conviction cases. Three men – George Bell, Rohan Bolt, and Gary Johnson – spent a combined nearly 75 years in prison for murders they did not commit. When their convictions were vacated in 2021, Judge Joseph Zayas found that prosecutors had possessed police reports pointing to other suspects, as well as significant information concerning the prosecution’s key witness, none of which had been disclosed to the defense. He wrote that the prosecution had “completely abdicated its truth-seeking role.”

Following the ruling, disciplinary complaints were filed against seven prosecutors. Five years later, the attorney grievance committee concluded that there was insufficient evidence that the prosecutors had violated the rules and laws governing attorney conduct and closed the complaints. Its notice consisted of only five sentences and did not explain what had been examined or how the decision had been reached.

A week later, James Doyle published an essay prompted by the case. He argues that we should not stop at the obvious question: Which prosecutor was at fault? When a failure this serious occurs, we must also examine the organizational system in which the individuals were operating. Drawing on Diane Vaughan’s analysis of the Challenger disaster, he asks whether failure sometimes results not from deviation from organizational norms but from conformity to them – from work processes and professional cultures that gradually normalize dangerous practices.

The Queens case is not an isolated example. In a July 21, 2026 overview, the Death Penalty Information Center reported more than 600 instances in which a capital conviction or death sentence had been overturned, or a death-row prisoner exonerated, as a result of prosecutorial misconduct. Of the 202 death-row exonerations then........

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