What advantages does the prosecution have in its efforts to convict wrongdoers and seek justice? What benefits do trial procedures provide defendants?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answers may vary.The prosecution, in its efforts to convict wrongdoers and seek justice, has several advantages, including these:1. It has the full resources of the government at its disposal to carry out a prosecution. Detectives can locate witnesses and subpoena them. The prosecutor can request testimony from chemists, fingerprint examiners, medical examiners, psychiatrists, photographers, or other appropriate experts.2. In the trial itself, the prosecution presents its evidence before the defense, getting "first crack" at the jury. At the end of the trial, when both sides are permitted closing arguments, the prosecution again gets to go first and also gets the chance to offer a final rebuttal to the defense attorney's closing argument. Therefore, the prosecution has the advantages of both primacy and recency in its attempts at jury persuasion, and research shows that information presented first (primacy) and last (recency) has more persuasive influence than information presented in the middle of a discussion.Trial procedures also provide defendants with certain benefits, including the following:1. The defense is entitled to "discovery"; the prosecution must turn over all exculpatory evidence (evidence that would tend to absolve the defendant), but the defense does not have to turn over all incriminating evidence.2. If a trial is before a jury, the defense may have more opportunities than the prosecution to remove potential jurors without giving a reason.3. Defendants do not have to take the stand as witnesses on their own behalf. In fact, they do not have to put on any defense at all; the burden is on the prosecution to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty of the crime.4. Defendants who are found not guilty can never be tried again for that specific crime. So for example, even if Baltimore police uncover new evidence against Caesar Goodson, the officer acquitted of murder in Freddie Gray's death, Goodson can never be retried on those charges.