The Power of Prosecutors

42 Pages Posted: 8 Sep 2018 Last revised: 7 May 2019

Date Written: August 29, 2018

Abstract

One of the predominant themes in the criminal justice literature is that prosecutors, not legislators, judges, or police, dominate the justice system. Over 75 years ago, Attorney General Robert Jackson famously proclaimed that the “prosecutor has more control over life, liberty, and reputation than any other person in America.” In one of the most cited law review articles of all time, Bill Stuntz added that prosecutors, not judges, police, or legislators, “are the criminal justice system’s real lawmakers.” And an unchallenged modern consensus holds that prosecutors “rule the criminal justice system.”

This Article applies a critical lens to longstanding claims of prosecutorial preeminence. It reveals a curious echo chamber enabled by a puzzling lack of dissent. With few voices challenging ever-more-strident prosecutor-dominance rhetoric, academic claims became uncritical, imprecise, and ultimately incorrect.

An unchallenged consensus that “prosecutors are the criminal justice system” and that the “institution of the prosecutor has more power than any other in the criminal justice system,” has real consequences for criminal justice discourse. Portraying prosecutors as the system’s iron-fisted rulers obscures the complex interplay that actually determines criminal justice outcomes. The overheated rhetoric of prosecutorial preeminence fosters a superficial understanding of the criminal justice system, overlooks the powerful forces that can and do constrain prosecutors, and diverts attention from the most promising sources of reform (legislators, judges, and police) to the least (prosecutors).

Keywords: prosecutors, criminal justice

Suggested Citation

Bellin, Jeffrey, The Power of Prosecutors (August 29, 2018). New York University Law Review, Vol. 94 p. 171, 2019, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3240902

Jeffrey Bellin (Contact Author)

William & Mary Law School ( email )

South Henry Street
P.O. Box 8795
Williamsburg, VA 23187-8795
United States

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