Opinion

Op-Ed | Kings of the United States Virgin Islands

Editor's Note: This opinion piece was originally submitted to the VI Consortium in January 2015 by former federal prosecutor Paul Murphy, when the USVI witnessed Soraya Diase-Coffelt's swift resignation from the V.I. attorney general position two weeks after she was appointed by former Governor Kenneth Mapp.  The Consortium's Editorial arm believes the discussion is relevant to the present day, and therefore decided to reprint.    By way of introduction and background, I was a prosecutor for 36 years retiring in 2011 with 32 of those years as a federal prosecutor. From 2005 through 2009, I served as the first assistant, and the acting and interim U.S. Attorney in the United States Virgin Islands. I teach Criminal Procedure at the University of St. Thomas Law School in Minneapolis, Minn. Obviously, I write only as a private citizen and in no official capacity to express an opinion on the failure of the Revised Organic Act of 1954 (ROA) to guarantee impartial and independent local law...