prosecutor n : a government official who conducts criminal prosecutions on behalf of the state [syn: public prosecutor, prosecuting officer, prosecuting attorney]

English

Etymology

prosecute + -or

Pronunciation

(US) IPA: /ˈprɑsəˌkjuːtər/

Noun

1. A lawyer who decides whether to charge a person with a crime and tries to prove in court that the person is guilty.

   The prosecutor got the witness to admit he was lying.

Related terms

• prosecute
• prosecution

Translations

The prosecutor is the chief legal representative of the prosecution in countries with either the common law adversarial system or the civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the case against an individual suspected of breaking the law in a criminal trial.

Common law jurisdictions

Prosecutors are typically lawyers who possess a law degree and are recognized as legal professionals by the court in which they intend to represent the state (that is, they have been admitted to the bar).

They usually only become involved in a criminal case once charges need to be laid. They are typically employed by an office of the government with safeguards in place to ensure such an office can successfully pursue the prosecution of government officials. Often multiple offices exist in a single country due to the various legal jurisdictions that exist.

Being backed by the power of the state, prosecutors are usually subject to special professional responsibility rules in addition to those binding all lawyers. For example, in the United States, Rule 3.8 of the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct requires prosecutors to "make timely disclosure to the defense of all evidence or information ... that tends to negate the guilt of the accused or mitigates the offense."

Directors of Public Prosecutions

In Australia, Canada, England and Wales, Hong Kong, Northern Ireland, Southern Ireland and South Africa the head of the prosecuting authority is typically known as the Director of Public Prosecutions and is appointed, not elected. A DPP may be subject to varying degrees of control by the Attorney General, usually by a formal written directive which must be published.

In Australia at least, in the case of very serious matters, the DPP will be asked by the police during the course of the investigation to advise them on sufficiency of evidence and may well be asked, if he or she thinks it proper, to prepare an application to the relevant court for search, listening device or telecommunications interception warrants

More recent constitutions, such as South Africa's or Fiji's tend to guarantee the independence and impartiality of the DPP.

India

In India, a Public Prosecutor represents the state in court.

United States

In the United States the director of any such offices may be known by any of several names depending on the legal jurisdiction.

The terms County Attorney, Prosecuting Attorney (in Michigan, Indiana, and West Virginia), County Prosecutor, State Attorney, State's Attorney, State Prosecutor, Commonwealth's Attorney (in Virginia and Kentucky), District Attorney, District Attorney General (in Tennessee), City Attorney, City Prosecutor, and Circuit Attorney (in Missouri) are all titles of prosecutors in various state courts. State prosecutor may be either appointed or elected. United States Attorneys represent the federal government in federal court, in both civil and criminal cases.

These offices should not be confused with Corporation Counsel, who typically handles only civil matters involving monetary damages, and does not handle criminal prosecutions.

Canada

In Canada the term for a Prosecutor is Crown Attorney or Crown Counsel.

Scotland

Though Scots law is a mixed system, its civil law jurisdiction indicates its civil law heritage. Here all prosecutions are carried out by Procurators Fiscal and Advocates Depute on behalf of the Lord Advocate, and, in theory, they can direct investigations by the police. In very serious cases a Procurator Fiscal, Advocate Depute or even the Lord Advocate may take charge of a police investigation. It is at the discretion of the Procurator Fiscal, Advocate Depute or Lord Advocate to take a prosecution to court and to decide on whether to prosecute it under solemn procedure or summary procedure. Other remedies are open to a prosecutor in Scotland, including fiscal fines and non-court based interventions such as rehabilitation and social work. All prosecutions are handled within the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service. Procurators fiscal will usually refer cases involving minors to Children's Hearings, which are not courts of law, but a panel of lay members empowered to act in the interests of the child.

Civil law jurisdictions

Prosecutors are typically civil servants who possess a university degree in law and additional training in the administration of justice. In some countries, such as France, they belong to the same corps of civil servants as the judges.

Brazil

In Brazil, the public prosecutors form a body of autonomous magistrates - the Ministério Público - working both at the federal and state level. The procuradores da República - federal prosecutors - are divided in three ranks, according to the jurisdiction of the courts before which they officiate, thus the "procuradores da República" (federal prosecutors) officiate before single judges and lower courts, "procuradores regionais da República" (prosecutors who officiate before federal appellate courts)and "subprocuradores gerais da República" (prosecutors who officiate before the superior federal courts). The Procurador Geral da República heads the federal body and tries cases before the Supremo Tribunal Federal (STF), Brazil's highest court, in charge of judicial review and the judgment of criminal offenses perpetrated by federal legislators, members of the cabinet and the President of Brazil. At the state level, the career is usually divided in "promotores de Justiça substitutos" (substitute state prosecutors), "promotores de Justiça" (state prosecutors), which officiate before the lower courts, and "procuradores de Justiça" (prosecutors officiating before the states' court of appeals). There are also military prosecutors whose career, although linked to the federal prosecutors, is divided in a manner similar to state prosecutors. In Brazil the prosecutors' main job is to promote justice, as such they have the duty of not only trying criminal cases, but, if during the trial they become convinced of a defendant's innocence, requesting the judge to acquit him. The prosecutor's office has always the last word on whether criminal offenses will or will not be charged, with the exception of those rare cases in which Brazilian law allows for private prosecution. In such cases, the prosecutor will officiate as custos legis, being responsible to ensure that justice is indeed carried out. Although empowered by law to do so, prosecutors conduct criminal investigations only in major cases, usually envolving police or public officials' wrongdoings. Also, they are in charge of supervising police work and directing the police in their investigations. The power of individual prosecutors to hold criminal investigations is still controversial and, although massively supported by judges, prosecutors and the general population, it is being contested before the Supremo Tribunal Federal. Beside their criminal duties, Brazilian prosecutors are among those authorized by the Brazilian constitution to bring action against private individuals, commercial enterprises and the federal, state and municipal governments, in the defense of minorities, the environment, consumers and the civil society in general.