A district attorney handles criminal and civil cases within their jurisdiction. They oversee an office of investigators and paralegals to investigate crimes and take cases to court. During a trial, they question witnesses and present findings to the judge.
A district attorney typically works for a city or county and handles all criminal and civil cases that fall within the district attorney’s jurisdiction. Normally, when a crime is committed, law enforcement officers hand over the crime reports to the public prosecutor. The public prosecutor will examine the case to decide what crime or crimes were committed and whether or not there is sufficient evidence to prosecute the alleged offenders. If the prosecutor decides to go ahead with a trial, she will consider any possible plea bargain and bail issues and begin the pre-trial investigation.
The public prosecutor oversees an office of investigators, officials, and paralegals who investigate crimes, backgrounds of criminal suspects, and similar criminal cases. Once the investigation is complete, the public prosecutor will take the case to court. The whole process usually starts immediately after discovering a potential crime. After the police complete their level of investigation, the prosecutor will usually be informed of the crime and given a copy of the initial reports and evidence. With some crimes like murder, kidnapping and some cases of abuse, the public prosecutor arrives at the crime scene to do a preliminary investigation, take pictures and help preserve the evidence.
With some crimes, the district attorney will instruct investigators what type of evidence they should look for. All of this is done to strengthen any case that may arise and to ensure that evidence is not discarded due to improper collection or handling. Once sufficient evidence has been collected and the prosecutor is satisfied that there is sufficient evidence to proceed with a trial, a trial date will be established with the court and all parties will be notified. In the United States, some crimes warrant a grand jury hearing to allow a judge to decipher whether there is enough evidence to proceed.
During a trial, the district attorney will question persons from a list of witnesses or experts called upon to give their expert opinion on the facts of the trial. The prosecutor will also cross-examine witnesses that the defense team has presented in an attempt to prove that they are unreliable in the eyes of the jury or the judge. When the trial concludes and the prosecution is victorious, the district attorney will conduct a post-trial investigation and present the findings, along with any sentencing recommendations, to the judge. Occasionally, the prosecutor’s office will be required to place witnesses on the stand to corroborate the conclusions of the post-sentence investigation.
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