Lawsuit challenges prosecutors' immunity

WASHINGTON, April 13 (UPI) -- A lawsuit by a man who spent 24 years in prison before his California murder conviction was reversed could overturn prosecutorial immunity, legal analysts said.

The Los Angeles District Attorney's Office has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case, the Los Angeles Times reported. A federal appeals court last year ruled that Thomas Goldstein could sue former Los Angeles District Attorney John Van de Kamp for failing to set up guidelines for the use of jailhouse informants.

Goldstein was convicted of a 1979 killing partly on the testimony of a jail inmate who claimed to have heard a confession. An appeals court found years later that the informant lied to the jury about getting favors in return for his testimony.

"This suit was 29 years in the making, and it's about accountability," Goldstein said.

Van de Kamp, who later served as California attorney general, was not directly involved with the case. The circuit court ruling does not make prosecutors liable to suit for their work preparing a case or presenting it in court but would allow supervisors to be sued, the newspaper said.