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Joseph Kasongo

Criminal justice 1010


December 2, 2015

The Role of the Prosecutor


All big criminal cases require the participation of three individuals: the judge, counsel for the
prosecution, and counsel for the accused. If any of these are missing from the procedure, the
criminal justice is not complete. The prosecutor stands at a critical stage in the criminal justice
system as well as playing a critical role before, during and after the trial. They serve many
functions throughout the criminal process. They serve many functions throughout the criminal
process.
Those who are investigating, plead bargains, questioning both jurors and witnesses, are involved
through the sentencing as well. The first thing that we must know is that the job of the prosecutor
is to find justice, not to convict. It is crucial that the Prosecutor obligation is to protect the
innocent and also to convict the guilty, to protect the rights of the accused as well as to enforce
the rights of the public. The prosecutor should know more about the work of the police in the
investigation of crimes and in the enforcement of law. The prosecutor has tremendous amount of
desecration as to what charges will be brought against an accused person or whether to even
dismiss charges all based on lack of evidence. The majority of the prosecutors work load is full
of cases which a complaint was either filed by a citizen or by following an arrest made by the
police. But there are times where a citizen is not in position to prosecute. It is important that,
under these circumstances, the prosecutor investigate criminal acts on his/her own Initiative and

independent of citizen complaints or police activity. Most prosecutors express willingness to


accept this responsibility, provided they have adequate investigative resources. It is essential that
a guilty plea is entered not only voluntarily, but understandingly as well. A plea entered as a
result of a prosecutors promising concessions beyond his/her power to fulfill is involuntary and
the defendant is entitled to withdrawal it. It is therefore important that the prosecutor make it
clear to the accused that he or she is not able to assure the judicial consequence of a guilty plea.
When some but not all charges against a defendant are dropped due to the plea of guilty to one or
more other charges, the prosecutor should write a note that this is the basis of the guilty plea. The
prosecutor should also write a note that the participation and approval of both the defendant and
his counsel.

The process of examining prospective jurors is made to give the counsel an opportunity to
determine if each juror is able to make a decision on the case fairly and without bias.
Regrettably, void dire is often abused by lawyers. Recognizing that these abuses exist, it has been
recommended that the questioning of jurors should be done by the judge allowing counsel to
make reasonable inquiry subject to the control of the court. Another important function of the
prosecutor is his responsibility to present evidence in court. It is a really bad behavior for a
prosecutor to knowingly offer false evidence, whether by documents, tangible evidence, or the
testimony of witnesses. It is also very unprofessional for a prosecutor to present evidence which
is known to be tainted for mere sake of presenting it in plain view of the judge or jury which
would tend to prejudice fair consideration by the judge or jury. Another important part of the
prosecutors function is the questioning of witnesses. The prosecutor should avoid discrediting or
undermining a witness if he knows the witness is testifying truthfully. Also, when a witness has

claimed the Fifth Amendment, courts inform jurors from drawing evidentiary inferences from the
fact that a witness has claimed a privilege. Most courts use questions which attempt to give
impressions which are negative when the questioner has no evidence to support the innuendo.
For example: Have you ever been convicted of the crime of rape? Lastly, the prosecutor will at
times need to urge the courts to take a stronger stand in sentencing. But it is important to realize
that the prosecutor is there to see that justice is fairly served and not to measure his effectiveness
by the severity of the sentences impose in the cases he prosecutes. This can be achieved if the
prosecutor will not imply to the public that his success should be measured by this severity of
sentencing. The prosecutor should remember that throughout all things, justice should be served
regardless. Even though they serve various functions through the course of the criminal process,
such as investigating criminal acts, plea bargaining, questioning jurors, questioning witnesses,
and participation in the sentencing phase, they should realize that a persons life and reputation
are stake. Even more importantly, the innocent is convicted; the guilty is also set free.
Basically the prosecutor is the main key in the criminal justice court as he is the chief character
that will stand before the victim who has submitted a criminal act, to either charge the victim
with a crime. Most the time the victim will see the judge, then the judge will ahead send their
information to the prosecutor to decide on how to punish such an individual and also their
sentence may be describe from there. I also believe that, criminal justice as absolutely different
in all continents. For example in my country, of where I was born in, Rwanda, as I grew up Ive
witnessed the types of punishment individuals who commit crimes will receive. Most of them are
beaten half to death by the police. When individuals are caught by the police before taken into
custody are beaten so bad that they could barely walk on their feel. Since isnt much of justices

of court or such a thing of judges, the police are taking the advantages of this victims and are
fully taking their rights.
If few of other continents would have the opportunity of a prosecutor or even justice courts,
which would provide to the individual who are being punished wrongly such remorse to at least
have the opportunity to defend themselves, or even beat their cases. Few of the times individuals
are punished for the wrong reasons. Sometimes they actually have not even committed the
crimes that their being charged for.

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