I have become a big fan of the new TV series Raising the Bar. It seems that the prosecutors in that show don’t really care if the people they are trying to convict are innocent or not. It seems as though the defending attorney goes more out of their way to seek justice than the prosecutors. I can understand the defending attorney’s reason for looking into the cases of the people they represent, but the duty of the prosecutor is to seek justice, not merely to convict. Also the duty of a defending attorney is to seek justice for their client, not to help their client get away with breaking the law. How accurate is this show that shows both the lives of defenders and prosecutors?
How far is a prosecutor allowed to go in order to seek justice? Are prosecutors allowed to research the people they prosecute? Are they only allowed to go by what the detectives tell them and what is placed in a file of the defendant or are they allowed to get involved to seek the truth themselves?
How far can a defending attorney go to prove the innocence of their client, and how far can a prosecutor if they are allowed to investigate?
I understand that most prosecutors wouldn’t investigate all charges of the people they prosecute because of their heavy work load and due to the fact that the defendant has the right to a speedy trial and investigating all cases would make that right difficult.
What happens if a prosecutor discovers that a defendant is innocent, one would think that the prosecutor is required by law and a code of ethics to disclose the information to the defending attorney and prepare for the case to be dismissed and the defendants acquitted of all charges even though the prosecutor will lose his case. In the show Raising the Bar you find prosecutors ignoring evidence and even going as far as to hide evidence, even cause witnesses unable to show (a witness was deported) in order to win a case regardless of the defendants innocence. It seems that all a prosecutor wants to do is win as many cases as possible regardless of the true guilt or innocence of the defendant.
If a prosecutors job is to seek justice how is he doing that if he goes by the words in a file. How can he know the truth about someone he is prosecuting? How can the prosecutor know if the investigators lied or tampered with evidence?
If a prosecutor learns that he or she aided in the conviction of an innocent person, how can they ever live with themselves especially if the person served time or was put to death?
What if a defending attorney finds that his client is guilty of what they were charged? What if the defending attorney learns that his client lied to him, what is he required them? Are they to turn the guilty defendant over to the courts and disclose what they learned or are they required to practice confidentiality?
I know that the judicial system is set up the way it is to be fair and impartial, and that it’s not a perfect system even though it works in most cases. How about when the system fails because of manipulation or a mistake? How can justice be served by all people if the rich can hire expensive attorneys and the common person only gets a public defender that may or may not care about him?