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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    Los Angeles
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    1

    Default Do the Rules Compel Prosecutors to Drop the Charges if Someone is Innocent

    My question involves criminal law for the state of: California

    What rules of law or professional conduct require a Prosecutor to drop the charges if the accused is innocent?

    In the legal ethics class I teach, this question came up yesterday and we could not agree upon an answer, so I'm curious what the Criminal Law community here thinks.

    CRPC Rule 5-110 requires that a govt. employee disclose to the court if he does not have "probable cause" to proceed with an action, but which standard of probable cause does that mean? Is it the definition of probable cause as "information sufficient to warrant a prudent person's belief that the wanted individual had committed a crime," or the Illinois v. Gates threshold of probable cause that a "substantial chance" or "fair probability" of criminal activity could establish probable cause, but better-than-even chance is not required.

    We all want to believe that as soon as the DA knows a person is innocent, he or she will drop the charges, but we also know that the DA's office is highly politicized, and often the public is demanding a conviction of someone -- anyone, so the circumstances exist for DAs to have motivation to prosecute someone who is not guilty.

    Yes, they have to turn over exculpatory evidence, but if defense counsel is not competent, or if inculpatory evidence is sufficient to convince a jury, is there anywhere in the law or rules of conduct that says that when a prosecutor KNOWS someone didn't do it, but can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he did (without presenting false evidence to the court), that the prosecutor must drop the charges?

    Or are we left to assume (hope?) the morals of the person will win out and/or the defense will do its job sufficiently and the system will work?

    I posted this on another legal forum and am getting a lot of bad answers. Yes, I know prosecutors SHOULD drop the charges, and I am familiar with all the bases for victory on appeal that would result from this scenario, but is there anything in the California Rules or the Model Rules that require a prosecutor to NOT prosecute someone simply because that person didn't commit the crime?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Posts
    38,867

    Default Re: Do the Rules Compel Prosecutors to Drop the Charges if Someone is Innocent

    a defendant is not ruled to be innocent but the closest it gets (acquitted or not guilty) is determined by the trial.

    a prosecution is obviously not warranted if the person is innocent but if the evidence supports the possibility the defendant is in fact guilty, then it is not up to the DA to make the determination of whether the defendant is guilty or not but merely if there is enough evidence to take the case to trial with a reasonable chance of a guilty verdict.

    If the DA knows for a fact the defendant is not guilty then any attempt to take the case to trial would be an abuse of his power and malicious prosecution a crime in itself.

    probable cause, or lack of actually, is not evidence of innocence, it is merely a legal threshold used to make a determination of whether other actions were legitimate or not.

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