The Prosecuting Attorney

A number of studies, descriptive and analytical, dealing with the office of prosecuting attorney in the United States have been presented to the readers of this Journal by Mr. Earl H. De Long and the writer. Not only have the constitutions and statutes relating to the office been examined but its administration has been studied both in its metropolitan and rural environments. The relations between the prosecuting attorney and the attorney-general of the state were discussed and considerable attention was given to the distractions which beset every prosecuting attorney due to the fact that he is a political office holder and is hampered in criminal law enforcement by the wide range of his official duties, quasi-criminal and civil. At this time it seems advisable to consider some of the judicial decisions directly involving the office but the task of sifting the thousands of cases in the field is one of great difficulty. Interesting cases are legion as each criminal appeal involves the work of some prosecuting attorney and many appellate briefs contain somewhere a claim of error predicated upon the conduct of those engaged in presenting the State's case at the trial. An attempt to cover all of the problems, with references only to the leading decisions, would be entirely too voluminous to justify its publication in article form. Moreover, it would run the risk of becoming tiresome to all except those specially interested in the subject. So the present study is limited to a few of the major legal problems of the office and an effort has been made to search for outstanding decisions of great importance. In many instances we let the court speak for itself, believing that the words of the court would be more interesting than a paraphrase could be. Moreover, in selecting both topics and decisions relating thereto, our desire is to amplify by use of legal materials the articles on the prosecuting attorney which have heretofore been published

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• Beyond Discretion

  Open Access•Austin Sarat, C H D Clarke et al.•Law & Social Inquiry•2008

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