Excerpt--words of Justice Robert Jackson in 1940:
“The prosecutor has more control over life, liberty, and reputation that any
other person in America. His discretion is tremendous. He can have
citizens investigated and, if he is that kind of person, he can have this done
to the tune of public statements and veiled or unveiled intimations.
Or the prosecutor may choose a more subtle course and simply
have a citizen’s friends interviewed. The prosecutor can order
to the tune of public statements and veiled or unveiled intimations.
Or the prosecutor may choose a more subtle course and simply
have a citizen’s friends interviewed. The prosecutor can order
arrests, present cases to the grand jury in secret session, and on the
basis of his one-sided presentation of the facts, can cause the citizen
to be indicted and held for trial. He may dismiss the case before
trial, in which case the defense never has a chance to be heard. Or he
may go on with a public trial. If he obtains a conviction, the
prosecutor can still make recommendations as to sentence, as to whether
the prisoner should get probation or a suspended sentence, and after he
is put away, as to whether he is a fit subject for parole. While the
prosecutor at his best is one of the most beneficent forces in our
society, when he acts from malice or other base motives, he is one of
the worst.”
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