Criticisms of Prosecutorial Discretion

Defense and Prosecution in Law

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nCriticisms of Prosecutorial Discretion

nIn the criminal justice system, the prosecutor has powers to exercise autonomous discretion. Therefore, he or she makes the decision on whom to charge with an offense; time to drop the charges, the types of files to use and to grant a plea of bargain. Therefore, their discretion is dependent on fairness and chances of conviction. In addition, their discretion is affected by some political reasons (Dressler & Michaels, 2013).

nI disagree with the criticism of prosecutorial discretion because prosecutors use the facts in the law to justify their actions. The decision to press charges is based on the availability of sufficient evidence associating a defendant to crime, the gravity of the offense, criminal records of the suspect and the importance of preserving prosecutorial resources for cases with more gravity (Dressler & Michaels, 2013). Similarly, their decision to drop charges is based on lack of evidence, unacceptable evidence and trivial crimes. Plea of bargain can also be granted if the defendant is willing to plead guilty while his or her charges are reduced. Therefore, criticism on prosecutorial discretion is not justified as they act within the law (Dressler & Michaels, 2013).

nDiscovery in Justice System

nDiscovery is a process where a defendant acquires all information the prosecutor is possessing regarding the case. Similarly, the prosecutor has to obtain some information that a defendant holds concerning a particular case (Dressler, 2010). The process typically occurs prior to trial. The defense needs to discover evidences of crime scenes, especially forensic evidences and photographs from the prosecutor. In addition, the defense needs to discover the witnesses, police reports, DNA evidences, toxicology results and booking evidences the prosecutor intends to use in a particular trial. Furthermore, the defense needs to discover testimonies from expert witnesses that may be used during trial. Finally, the defense must discover any other kind of “raw” evidence acquired by the prosecution office (Dressler, 2010).

nOn the other hand, the defense has to share some information with prosecution office. In Federal Courts, the prosecutor has to discover any alibi to the defenses. Additionally, the prosecutor has to discover the telephone numbers, addresses and names of the alibi witnesses (Dressler, 2010). The prosecutor has to discover the credible medical and physical inspection reports and “real evidences” that the defense is planning to use at trial. Some state laws demands complete reciprocal discovery of information between the defense and prosecutor (Dressler, 2010).

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nReferences

nDressler, J. (2010). Criminal law. (6th ed.) St. Paul, MN: Thomson/West.

nDressler, J., & Michaels, A. (2013). Understanding criminal procedure. New Providence, NJ: LexisNexis Matthew Bender.