Submitted by poliscijunki t3_yyxrep in nyc
tyen0 t1_ix0l6e5 wrote
Reply to comment by JonasQuin42 in Manhattan D.A. Slams Brakes on Prosecution of Woman in Husband’s Death by poliscijunki
I guess I was conflating it a bit with defense attorneys that have to defend the client regardless of what they believe the truth is. But I am struggling with your line of reasoning that the prosecutor has to believe they are guilty beyond reasonable doubt to even argue the case. If they are unsure, wouldn't it make sense to have a trial to get to the truth - or as close as possible?
JonasQuin42 t1_ix0raf6 wrote
On mobile so please take the suggestion to Google “prosecutorial discretion” as me honestly just trying to give you the info.
The basic concept is that a prosecutor/DA is supposed to be able to look at the full scope of the facts, and adjust the states response to a violation of the law. In this case that means that the DA is looking at the case and does not believe that there is a good case for arguing that the accused committed Murder 2. If that is the case, then is is both a waste of time and effort to bring a trial for that charge, and a an injustice to continue the trial.
To use a more absurd version of this, this is the same feature of the system that would be use if for instance, a cop randomly arrested the first person they found at the scene of a murder and accused them. It is intended as a filter for all sorts of reasons where we don’t want or need the full expense of a trial.
This is also happening on a broad scale all the time. I remember years ago cities started passing laws to deprioritize enforcement and prosecution of personal use quantities of weed.
tyen0 t1_ix0ycw2 wrote
Thanks for the explanatory effort. Obviously a part of our world I'm not familiar with aside from tv/movies. I always get kicked out at voir dire.
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