Prosecutor - What is their job? Sure Conviction or Correct Conviction?
By Rolf46
@Rolf46 (162)
United States
November 15, 2006 8:07pm CST
I have always wondered, what is the job of a prosecutor in court (Prosecutor could be a District Attorney, State's attorney, Attorney General, Etc. in USA,, probabaly different terms in other countries). Is their job to get a conviction for a crime, or get the CORRECT conviction for a crime. For instance - --- if they can get a conviction against one person, even though that person is not the true perpatrator, should they continue their pursuit? What do you think?
3 responses
@sfasu95 (18)
• United States
7 Dec 06
Perhaps I am cynical, but it seems that most prosecutors are only interested in their conviction rate, and maybe if they get around to it, the actual guilt or innocence of the person on trial enters into the equation. With all the recent convictions that have been overturned due to new DNA evidence, and innocent people spending years in prison for crimes they were not guilty of, this gives me more evidence to distrust the "Justice system". I was also recently reading about a rape case where the local DA was fighting against a judge's order for a new DNA test for a convict, under the justification that the jury spoke, and that's it.
I won't go into the actions of the Durham NC DA, in the Duke Lacrosse rape case, other than to say that if this is not railroad justice, I don't know what is.
