Law Commons^™

Forensic Science, Wrongful Convictions, And American Prosecutor Discretion, Dennis J. Stevens

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

A hot controversy exists about the reliability of forensic science as reported by prime-time drama television series in bringing violent criminals to justice. This exploratory research will show that neither forensics or its fictionalised (CSI Effect) accounts, nor substantial evidence secured by police investigators, shape prosecutor decisions to charge a suspect with a crime, which can often result in freeing guilty suspects and convicting innocent individuals. In the summer of 2006, 444 American prosecutors responded to a survey. The findings reveal that judges, juries, and defence lawyers are influenced more by prime-time American drama forensic accounts than by the substantial …

Charge Movement And Theories Of Prosecutors, Ronald F. Wright, Rodney L. Engen

Ronald F. Wright

The charges filed at the start of a criminal case often move down to less serious charges that form the basis for a guilty plea and conviction. In this symposium essay, we build on our earlier work on charge movement based on data from North Carolina. After noting that charges move at different rates for different crimes, we explain the differences among crimes by looking to the structure of the substantive criminal law. Groups of crimes that offer deeper options to the negotiators (such as the many versions of assault) produce more frequent charge movement.

Assuming that the structure of …