Prosecutorial Ethics (From Social Basis of Criminal Justice Ethical Issues for the 80's, P 109-180, 1981, by Frank Schmalleger and Robert Gustafson - See NCJ-85080)

• NCJ Number: 85085
• Author(s): J J Douglass
• Date Published: 1981
• Length: 72 pages
• Sale Source: University Press of America
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Prosecutorial standards of conduct are discussed in the areas of conflict of interest, media relations, investigation and charging, discovery, plea bargaining, and forensic impropriety.

Abstract

The standards primarily applied in the areas of prosecutorial conduct discussed are the American Bar Association Standards on the Prosecution Function and the National Prosecution Standards of the National District Attorneys Association. Even though standards for prosecutorial conduct do exist, their implementation in prosecutorial conduct is complicated by the broad authority exercised by prosecutors on their own discretion. This discretionary authority can only finally be controlled by the personal code of conduct of the prosecutor, since the written standards often are inadequate in speaking to the nuances of a particular prosecutorial situation. For this reason, only the most flagrant prosecutorial conduct appears amenable to appropriate disciplinary action. The standards applied to prosecutors generally focus on the areas of conflict of interest, media relation, investigation and charging, discovery, plea bargaining, and the trial areas of voir dire, argument, evidence, and examination of witnesses. Attorney General Robert H. Jackson (1940) summed up the qualities of an ethical prosecutor as one 'who tempers zeal with human kindness, who seeks truth and not victims, who serves the law and not factional purposes, and who approaches his task with humility.' A total of 135 footnotes are listed.