Victim’s Rights and All Those Involved
Kelly Beam
Week 5
CJA/354
Prosecutor
A prosecutor’s role in the criminal justice process is to prosecute cases on behalf of the government. They review the charges pending against each individual; determine the minimum and maximum possible sentence, then conversing with the defense attorney to determine what would be a fair and just punishment based on the circumstances and details of each case.
As a prosecuting attorney there is always an obligation to protect and honor the rights of the victim by ensuring justice is served and the accused is held responsible for their actions. One option prosecutors have is alternative sanctions to hold offenders liable for their actions against their victims. In some cases these alternative sanctions are considered by prosecuting attorneys in an attempt to rehabilitate and prevent future issues with the law. Assisting an offender with getting an education, drug and or alcohol treatment, and other forms of job training, can make the time he or she spends suffering the consequences their action can be well spent working on parts of their lives that allowed them to commit the crime initially.
I think prosecution attorneys should converse with the victims as well as the defense attorney when establishing how they will proceed with convicting an offender. I understand the opinion of the victim can’t have a huge effect on the decision of punishment, but fully understanding the details of the how the victim or their family feels about the things that took place and hearing it from the victim or their family could have a lasting effect on a prosecutor.
Defense Attorney
As a defense attorney, their job is to defend any individual charged with a criminal act. Some criminal defense attorneys are employed by the state, and some are privately employed to represent defendants. The main difference in a state attorney also known as a public defender and a private attorney is the cost of each ones services. Our countries Constitution honor the right of any defendant to have adequate legal representation if desired even if they cannot afford one themselves. In the case a defendant cannot afford a private defense attorney, the state hires them a public defender to properly represent their case and ensure their rights as an offender are honored. While representing any offender, it is the job of the defense attorney to negotiate with the prosecutor to come to an agreement on sentencing and communicate with all parties in the situation to keep them sufficiently updated on the status of the case.
In many cases the defense attorney may suggest a less severe punishment such as an alternative sanction of some form of rehabilitation, or even just a less severe prison sentence for a variety of reasons, rather it be due to their clients mental status at the time the crime was committed or due to a known mental illness.
Defense attorneys due have the duty to take the victim’s rights into consideration, but their primary concern is to represent the offender and come to an agreement with the states prosecution on a fair punishment for the crime committed.
In some cases a defense attorney may purposely question a victim’s validity in order to represent the offender’s side of the story and the details that took place at the time the alleged crime took place. They often question the validity to ensure that all aspects of a crime where actually present at the time of the act. A victim, any witnesses honesty and all the evidence admissible normally assist in determining all element of a crime were present which justifies prosecution to proceed with a conviction
It is hard to make suggestion as to how a defense attorney could better their initiative to honor a victim’s rights, because their primary concern is representing the suspect’s rights to ensure a fair and just punishment based on the facts presented to the court and or jury. As long as the punishment is
