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7 - Prosecutors: seeking justice through truth?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

John Kleinig
Affiliation:
John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY
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Summary

Law enforcement officers have the obligation to convict the guilty and to make sure they do not convict the innocent. They must be dedicated to making the criminal trial a procedure for the ascertainment of the true facts surrounding the commission of the crime. To this extent, our so-called adversary system is not adversary at all; nor should it be.

After an arrest is made, the suspect is booked and arraigned before a judge, who sets bail and asks how the defendant wishes to plead. The case then goes to the prosecutor's office to be reviewed and disposed of or referred elsewhere. The prosecution process differs quite significantly from one jurisdiction and country to another. In some places, for example, police retain a prosecutorial role, at least in regard to misdemeanors, though most prosecution services are separate from the police and function as independent arms of government. However, we should be mindful of the fact – and its implications – that in most states of the USA prosecutors are elected to office and in the remainder are political appointees. As we shall have occasion to notice later, each of these facts may affect the judicious discharge of a prosecutor's duties. Nor should we ignore the fact – though we cannot reflect it adequately here – that in the United States practices at the federal level often differ from those at a state or local level.

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Chapter
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Ethics and Criminal Justice
An Introduction
, pp. 113 - 135
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2008

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