by TChris

Richard Convertino, the federal prosecutor who withheld evidence in the Detroit terror trial, eventually causing the government to acknowledge that the convictions it obtained needed to be overturned (TalkLeft background collected here), is under investigation for misconduct in earlier prosecutions.

The two drug cases now under review involve 31 convicted defendants and were based in part on the testimony of numerous defendants who agreed to testify for the government. ... Several defendants filed sworn statements saying that prosecutors intimidated them into lying.

Laywers say that Convertino misled the jury in one of the cases by failing to disclose that a key prosecution witness had been given "a sharply reduced sentence" in exchange for his testimony. The witness, Hans Lee Thomas, killed a man in a drug deal after his release from prison.

In a second case, government officials "are reviewing whether Convertino improperly got leniency for a government informant accused of drug dealing."