Describe the ethical duties of prosecutors. Provide examples of how these duties affect the day-to-day job of prosecutors

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Prosecutors have a number of specific ethical obligations such as disclosing exculpatory evidence, avoiding conflicts of interest, and refraining from any behavior which would interfere with fair administration of justice. A series of Supreme Court cases require the prosecutor to hand over to the defense exculpatory evidence. This can be a vague mandate that leads some prosecutors to hand over as little evidence as possible. As a result appellate courts may find that prosecutors sometimes improperly withhold evidence from the defense, and therefore the guilty verdict is reversed and a new trial ordered. Conflict of interest is another ethical issue facing prosecutors. In private practice, a lawyer may represent an individual, but if that person runs afoul of the law, then the prosecutor must recuse himself or herself. Prosecutors exercise a tremendous amount of discretion in the charging decision and several ethical standards relate to how this discretion should be used. Prosecutors are not supposed to institute any criminal charges that are not supported by probable cause. The ambiguous nature of varying legal standards may lead to criticism that prosecutors unfairly failed to prosecute a case or for unfairly prosecuting a defendant based on political motives. The ethical issues surrounding prosecutors' discretion to seek the death penalty are often debated. Prosecutors often must make a series of close calls in these cases to decide which defendants should face capital punishment. How much information to release to the public presents another ethical issue for prosecutors (Pollock 2010). In the modern era, both the prosecution and the defense often try their cases in the press before a jury is picked. For this reason, judges often impose a gag order on high-profile cases, prohibiting either side from releasing information to the press.