Retired Justice John Paul Stevens said Supreme Court decisions have given local prosecutors impunity for violating constitutional rights, and urged Congress to respond by authorizing victims of misconduct to sue.

In a speech Monday night to the Equal Justice Initiative, which advocates for indigent defendants, Justice Stevens criticized the courts March decision overturning a jurys $14 million award to an innocent man who spent 14 years on death row after prosecutors concealed evidence that could have cleared him. (Click...