Prosecutor

A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the adversarial system, which is adopted in common law, or inquisitorial system, which is adopted in civil law. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the case in a criminal trial against the defendant, an individual accused of breaking the law. Typically, the prosecutor represents the state or the government in the case brought against the accused person.

A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the adversarial system, which is adopted in common law, or inquisitorial system, which is adopted in civil law. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the case in a criminal trial against the defendant, an individual accused of breaking the law. Typically, the prosecutor represents the state or the government in the case brought against the accused person. ===Directors of public prosecutions=== In most Commonwealth Nations, the head of the prosecuting authority is known as the director of public prosecutions (DPP) and is appointed, not elected. A DPP may be subject to varying degrees of control by the attorney general, a formal written directive which must be published. In Australia, the Offices of the Director of Public Prosecutions institute prosecutions for indictable offences on behalf of the Crown. At least in the case of very serious matters, the DPP will be asked by the police, during the investigation, to advise them on the sufficiency of evidence and may well be asked to prepare an application to the relevant court for search, listening device or telecommunications interception warrants. More recent constitutions, such as South Africa's, guarantee the independence and impartiality of the DPP. ==Common law jurisdictions== ===Australia=== Prosecutors in Australia come in a few distinct species. Prosecutors of criminal cases in lower courts are sometimes police officers with a traineeship in prosecution and advocacy; admitted lawyers may also be appointed. Crown Prosecutors are always lawyers and typically barristers, and they represent the state or Commonwealth in criminal proceedings in higher courts, such as the County or District Courts, or Supreme Court. Aside from police prosecutors and Crown prosecutors, government agencies have the authority to appoint non-lawyers to prosecute on their behalf, such as RSPCA Inspectors. ===Canada=== In Canada, public prosecutors in most provinces are called Crown Attorney or Crown Counsel. They are generally appointed by the provincial Attorney General. ===New Zealand=== In New Zealand, most crimes are prosecuted by a Police Prosecutor, an employee of the New Zealand Police. The most serious crimes, which are about 5% of all crimes, is outsourced to a lawyer working at private law firm known as a Crown prosecutor. ===Scotland=== Although Scots law is a mixed system, its civil law jurisdiction indicates its civil law heritage. Here, all prosecutions are carried out by Procurators Fiscal and Advocates Depute on behalf of the Lord Advocate, and, in theory, they can direct investigations by Police Scotland. In very serious cases, a Procurator Fiscal, Advocate Depute, or even the Lord Advocate may take charge of a police investigation. It is at the discretion of the Procurator Fiscal, Advocate Depute, or Lord Advocate to take a prosecution to court, and to decide on whether to prosecute it under solemn procedure or summary procedure. Other remedies are open to a prosecutor in Scotland, including fiscal fines and non-court based interventions, such as rehabilitation and social work. All prosecutions are handled within the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service. Procurators fiscal will usually refer cases involving minors to Children's Hearings, which are not courts of law, but a panel of lay members empowered to act in the interests of the child. ===United States=== The United States is the only country in the world where citizens elect prosecutors. The director of a prosecution office is known by any of several names depending on the jurisdiction, most commonly district attorney. Other names include state's attorney, state attorney, county attorney, and commonwealth's attorney. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the case against an individual or a corporation suspected of breaking the law, initiating and directing further criminal investigations, guiding and recommending the sentencing of offenders, and are the only attorneys allowed to participate in grand jury proceedings. The titles of prosecutors in state courts vary from state to state and level of government (i.e. city, county, and state) and include the terms District Attorney in New York, California, Texas, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Georgia, Nevada, Wisconsin, Oregon, and Oklahoma; City Attorney in California cities (typically prosecute only minor and misdemeanor offenses) Commonwealth's Attorney in Kentucky and Virginia; County Attorney in Nebraska, Minnesota, and Arizona; County Prosecutor in New Jersey, Ohio, and Indiana; District Attorney General in Tennessee; Prosecuting Attorney in Arkansas, Hawaii, Idaho, Michigan, Washington, and West Virginia, as well as in Missouri where cities additionally use City Attorneys to prosecute on their behalf; State's Attorney in Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, North Dakota, and Vermont; State Prosecutor; Attorney General in Delaware and Rhode Island; and Solicitor in South Carolina. Prosecutors are most often chosen through local elections, and typically hire other attorneys as deputies or assistants to conduct most of the actual work of the office. United States Attorneys are appointed by the President and confirmed by the United States Senate. They represent the federal government in federal court in both civil and criminal cases. Private attorneys general can bring criminal cases on behalf of private parties in some states. Prosecutors are required by state and federal laws to follow certain rules. For example, the government must disclose exculpatory evidence to the defense; must disclose matters affecting the credibility of prosecution witnesses, such as an agreement to dismiss the witness's own charges in exchange for their testimony; must not destroy potentially useful evidence in bad faith; and must not use false testimony to secure a conviction. Failure to follow these rules may result in a finding of prosecutorial misconduct, although a 2013 investigation found that actual discipline for prosecutorial misconduct was lacking. Prosecutors are also tasked with seeking justice in their prosecutions. "The United States Attorney," explained the U.S. Supreme Court, is the representative not of an ordinary party to a controversy, but of a sovereignty whose obligation to govern impartially is as compelling as its obligation to govern at all, and whose interest, therefore, in a criminal prosecution is not that it shall win a case, but that justice shall be done. As such, he is in a peculiar and very definite sense the servant of the law, the two-fold aim of which is that guilt shall not escape or innocence suffer. He may prosecute with earnestness and vigor—indeed, he should do so. But, while he may strike hard blows, he is not at liberty to strike foul ones. It is as much his duty to refrain from improper methods calculated to produce a wrongful conviction as it is to use every legitimate means to bring about a just one. In Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, criminal prosecutions are brought in the name of the Commonwealth. In California, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, and New York, criminal prosecutions are brought in the name of the People. In the remaining states, criminal prosecutions are brought in the name of the State. Prosecutors have broad discretion to decide whether to bring charges after an arrest, regardless of the strength of the evidence, and they decide what and how many charges to bring. Those decisions are "virtually unreviewable" by the courts. Prosecutors can also choose to dismiss criminal charges at any point by seeking a voluntary dismissal or nolle prosequi. They often bring additional charges that they know they cannot prove, to give them more leverage during the plea bargaining process and more charges to drop in exchange for guilty pleas. They also frequently promise to drop charges if defendants complete pretrial diversion programs, which typically require defendants to attend appointments, submit to drug testing, and pay fees over a period of months or years. ===Poland=== The highest-ranking prosecutor office of the Prokuratura in Poland is the Prokurator Generalny (General Prosecutor), who is the chief of the Prokuratura Krajowa (National Public Prosecutor's Office). The GP has 5 deputies. The structure of Public Prosecution in Poland is four-level: Prokuratura Krajowa — National Public Prosecutor's Office; prokuratury regionalne — provincial public prosecutor's offices (11); prokuratury okręgowe — regional public prosecutor's offices (45); and prokuratury rejonowe — district public prosecutor's offices (358). Apart from a brief period between 2010 and 2016, the position of Public Prosecutor General has been held concurrently by the Minister of Justice. ===Sweden=== In Sweden, public prosecutors are lawyers who work out of the Swedish Prosecution Authority ( ) and direct police investigations of serious crimes. For all criminal cases, public prosecutors decide arrests and charges on behalf of the public and are the only public officers who can make such decisions. Plaintiffs also have the option of hiring their own special prosecutor (enskilt åtal). The exception is cases concerning crimes against the freedom of the press for which the Chancellor of Justice acts as the prosecuting attorney. In court, the prosecutor is not necessarily in an adversarial relationship to the defendant, but is under an obligation to investigate and present information that may incriminate or exonerate the defendant. The prosecutor is not a judicial officer, nor do they participate in the private deliberations of the court. Public prosecutors are the only public officers who can decide to appeal cases to appellate courts. Otherwise, appeals are initiated by defense counsel, the plaintiff, their representatives, and other parties to the case (målsäganden). When a case has been decided by an appellate court, the right to appeal to the Supreme Court passes from the case's prosecutor to the Prosecutor-General ( ). ===Vietnam=== The Supreme People's Procuracy is the highest office of public procurators in Vietnam. == Independence and accountability== Political bias by prosecutors was found. In many countries, the prosecutor's administration is directly subordinate to the executive branch (e.g., the United States Attorney General is a member of the President's cabinet). In some other countries, such as Brazil or Italy, the prosecutors are judicial civil servants, so they have the same liberties and independence that judges traditionally enjoy. In other countries, a form of private prosecution is available, meaning persons or private entities can directly petition the courts to hold trial against someone they feel is guilty of a crime, should the prosecutor refuse to indict. Prosecutor independence and accountability to the people can reduce selective prosecution. ==Private prosecution== In the early history of England, victims of a crime and their family had the right to hire a private attorney to prosecute criminal charges against the person alleged to have injured the victim. In the 18th century, prosecution of almost all criminal offences in England was private, usually by the victim. In Colonial America, because of Dutch and possibly French practice and the expansion of the office of attorney general, public officials came to dominate the prosecution of crimes; however, privately funded prosecutors constituted a significant element of the state criminal justice system throughout the nineteenth century. The use of a private prosecutor was incorporated into the common law of Virginia but is no longer permitted there. Private prosecutors were also used in North Carolina as late as 1975. Private prosecution has been used in Nigeria, although the practice is being phased out. ==See also== Public procurator Public prosecutor's office Magistrats Européens pour la Démocratie et les Libertés (European Association of Judges and Public Prosecutors) ==References== ==Bibliography== Gad Barzilai. The Attorney General and the State Prosecutor: Is Institutional Separation Warranted? (Jerusalem: The Israel Democracy Institute, 2010). The Index of Arab-Jewish Relations in Israel 2012 (English). Hugo Nigro Mazzilli. Regime Juridico do Ministério Público, 5ª edição, São Paulo: Saraiva, 2001. Raoul Muhm, Gian Carlo Caselli (Hrsg.), Die Rolle des Staatsanwaltes Erfahrungen in Europa–Il ruolo del Pubblico Ministero Esperienze in Europa–Le role du Magistrat du Parquet Expériences en Europe The role of the Public Prosecutor Experiences in Europe, Vecchiarelli Editore Manziana (Roma) 2005. Raoul Muhm, "The role of the Public Prosecutor in Germany" in The Irish Jurist, Volume XXXVIII, New Series 2003, The Law Faculty, University College, Dublin LARCHIVIO - Finance Journal. Erick Maurel, Paroles de procureur (Paris: Gallimard, 2008), . ==External links== Prosecutor.info indexes almost 2,900 prosecutor web sites throughout the US and other countries. ProsecutorTips.com Free trial advocacy tips for prosecutors and trial Burnley Law Firm Summaries of Recent U.S. Criminal Law Decisions CCPE Consultative Council of European Prosecutors L'Archivio "diritto – history" IAP International Association of Prosecutors Private Prosecution in UK Edmonds Marshall McMahon Leading Private Prosecutors

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