Prosecution Paper

Why I would want to be a Prosecutor

The first responsibility of a prosecutor is to administer justice. Why would this boring definition of a job description sound so appealing? Before taking this course, that wouldn’t have sounded interesting at all, but when you break down what it really means to be a prosecutor and what the job entails, there is a lot more then what meets the eye. Between building your arguments for a case using facts and evidence, plea bargaining with defendants, understanding the significance of cases to the community and knowing that you have the freedom to charge, or not charge, based on your moral standards, it sounds like a pretty cool job to me. I will discuss in further detail the job requirements of the prosecutor throughout the paper. I will also discuss why being a prosecutor is better than being a defense lawyer.

The main aspect of being a prosecutor that is appealing to me is the discretion and power that comes with the job. The criminal justice system starts when a suspect is arrested. After the cops bring this person back to the police station and file a report, as the prosecutor, that person’s future is in your hands. It is at this point the prosecutor must analyze the facts and evidence that the police have brought and build your argument as to why this person committed a crime beyond reasonable doubt. Some things that a prosecutor needs to keep in mind though is that you need to share any exculpatory evidence with the defense because you will lose your license and the case otherwise. It should also be noted that the prosecutor should work fairly quickly because if they don’t charge anything within a year the case will be dismissed. Once a charge is made, usually, in order to save time and taxpayer’s money, the prosecutor tries to plea bargain with the defendant and their lawyer if they so choose to have one, unless they are Bernie Destephano and want to represent themselves. But what’s cool is that as the prosecutor it is...