In a highly unusual decision, set forth in a 45-page unanimous opinion, the Arizona Supreme Court upheld a recommendation for disbarment of the state's most "successful" capital homicide prosecutor for suborning and exploiting known perjury.

The use of false testimony in the trial of two men accused in a 1992 triple-slaying at a market in Tucson "could not have been more harmful to the justice system," wrote Justice Michael D. Ryan for the unanimous court. "A prosecutor who deliberately presents false testimony, especially in a capital case, has caused incalculable injury to the integrity of the legal profession and the justice system."

[Kenneth] Peasley was admitted to the state bar in 1974 and conducted about 250 felony cases, 140 of which were homicides, the court said. Sixty of the cases were capital murder trials. In a ruling overturning the conviction of one of the defendants in 2002, the Supreme Court said Peasley intentionally deceived the jury to paper over weaknesses in his case.

[hat tip to Peter Goldberger, who emails that apparently some of Peasley's victims were executed.]