Duties of a government prosecutor.
I've been taken to task for posts about the prosecutor's presser.
Especially her comment about Trayvon Martin's "sweet family"
I have been told, by persons who claim to be knowledgeable of law, that the prosecutor's job is to be an "advocate" for the alleged victim.
I do not, and can not, believe this is true, or should be.
Here's what I think is a pretty good description of what a prosecutor SHOULD do:
"Prosecutors are unique in that they have both powers and duties that other lawyers do not. This does not mean prosecutors are any better or worse than other lawyers, but it does result in many misconceptions about the prosecutor’s role in the criminal justice system. The quotations contained on this page are intended to shed some light on this role.
“The duty of a public prosecutor or other government lawyer is to seek justice, not merely to convict.”
Rule 3.8(a) of the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct
“The United States Attorney [a prosecutor in Federal Court] is the representative not of an ordinary party to a controversy, but of a sovereignty whose obligation to govern impartially is as compelling as its obligation to govern at all; and whose interest, therefore, in a criminal prosecution is not that it shall win a case, but that justice shall be done.
As such, he is in a peculiar and very definite sense the servant of the law, the twofold aim of which is that guilt shall not escape or innocence suffer. He may prosecute with earnestness and vigor – indeed, he should do so. But, while he may strike hard blows, he is not at liberty to strike foul ones. It is as much his duty to refrain from improper methods calculated to produce a wrongful conviction as it is to use every legitimate means to bring about a just one.”
http://www.henrycty.com/codepartments/stateatty/aboutprosecutor.htm
I rest my case.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Many times the 'real' world differs greatly from the intended, hoped for, or ideal.
I'm just stating what 'should be' and is directed in legal guidelines, not what is.
And i don't understand why folks seem to have a problem with this.
Whatever...
Many on DU believe they are victim's advocates.
One who claimed to be a defense attorney as much as called me an idiot for stating otherwise.
(I can claim to be a supreme court justice online, but that doesn't make me one. 
)
I know there are politics involved in any elected or appointed office, but ideally (and by statue) the prosecutor's job is to find the truth in a criminal matter.
If exculpatory evidence pointing to the accused's innocence is uncovered, the prosecutor is obligated morally and legally to turn that information over to the court.
It happens.
I said in another OP that the prosecutor's comment about "justice for Trayvon's sweet family" was inappropriate, and I stand by that.
Buddy, YOU just made the list, and it's a VERY short one.
