With Passion: An Activist Lawyer's Life

Why Tell These Stories? This book does not try to glamorize or demonize prosecutors; the cases, anecdotes, and experiences speak for themselves. This book shows emphatically that the prosecutor is the most powerful official in American government. As a former prosecutor, the book is written in an attempt to help anyone interested in criminal law understand how the prosecutor uses, and misuses, this extraordinary power to convict wrongdoers and vindicate the criminal law system. There are roughly 50,000 federal, state, and local prosecutors nationwide. This book describes how these prosecutors are featured in criminal courtrooms in America as the producer, director, and star of a system that processes thousands of criminal cases a week. As we shall see, virtually every important decision in a criminal case is made by the prosecutor: who to investigate, who to charge, what to charge, who to reward, who to punish, and how much to punish. These decisions are momentous. While they help protect citizens and provide the safety of communities, these decisions also destroy people's lives, break up families, ruin reputations, and imprison people with more substantial punishments than any other country in the world. The prosecutor has rightly been called a Champion of the People who is committed to making the community safe in a battle against lawbreakers. To me, it is indisputable that a prosecutor confronts the most daunting challenge of any government official. A prosecutor has the lawful power to take away a person's liberty, reputation, and even life itself. A prosecutor often has to walk a tightrope in protecting society's interests aggressively against an equally aggressive defense attorney, while at the same time trying to serve justice. This book has two major themes. Firstly, it explains why for good or ill the prosecutor is the most powerful figure in the criminal justice system. Secondly, it explains how prosecutors use their prodigious power not only to serve justice, but also to produce alarming injustices. These stories illuminate the many roles that prosecutors play, well beyond the familiar charging, plea bargaining, and litigation functions. In the end, my hope is that these stories may contribute to a better understanding of the prosecutor as a special guardian of justice.