State v. Clark

OPINION

Acting

Chief Justice GOLDBERG,

for the Court.

Justice bows to no man (or woman). The defendant, Jeffrey Clark (Clark or defendant), was an off-duty police officer with the Rhode Island State Police who, a jury concluded, viciously assaulted a defenseless prisoner. This case came before the Supreme Court on March 4, 2009, on the defendant’s appeal from a Superior Court judgment of conviction on charges of felony assault, simple assault, and filing a false report of a crime.

At the outset, we pause to express our concern, yet again, with the state’s practice, in its drive to convict, of…