{"id":2617,"date":"2016-07-20T02:58:25","date_gmt":"2016-07-20T02:58:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/?p=2617"},"modified":"2016-07-20T22:49:28","modified_gmt":"2016-07-20T22:49:28","slug":"tremendous-discretion-has-changed-little-since-1940","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/?p=2617","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Tremendous &#8230; discretion\u2019 has changed little since 1940"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_2618\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2618\" style=\"width: 200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2618\" src=\"http:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/160719Jackson.jpg\" alt=\"Robert H. Jackson\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/160719Jackson.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/160719Jackson-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2618\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Robert H. Jackson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">July 19, 2016<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe prosecutor has more control over life, liberty, and reputation than any other person in America. His discretion is tremendous. He can have citizens investigated and, if he is that kind of person, he can have this done to the tune of public statements and veiled or unveiled intimations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOr the prosecutor may choose a more subtle course and simply have a citizen&#8217;s friends interviewed. The prosecutor can order arrests, present cases to the grand jury in secret session, and on the basis of his one-sided presentation of the facts, can cause the citizen to be indicted and held for trial. He may dismiss the case before trial, in which case the defense never has a chance to be heard.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOr he may go on with a public trial. If he obtains a conviction, the prosecutor can still make recommendations as to sentence, as to whether the prisoner should get probation or a suspended sentence, and after he is put away, as to whether he is a fit subject for parole.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile the prosecutor at his best is one of the most beneficent forces in our society, when he acts from malice or other base motives, he is one of the worst&#8230;.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><em>\u2013 From <a href=\"https:\/\/www.roberthjackson.org\/speech-and-writing\/the-federal-prosecutor\/\" target=\"_blank\">an address<\/a> \u00a0by Attorney General <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Robert_H._Jackson\" target=\"_blank\">Robert H. Jackson<\/a>\u00a0to the Conference of United States Attorneys, Washington, D.C., April 1, 1940<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Although Jackson\u2019s cautionary words were directed toward federal prosecutors, they could hardly be more applicable to the State of North Carolina\u2019s\u00a0prosecution of the Edenton Seven.\u00a0 H.P. Williams Jr., Bill Hart and Nancy Lamb surely missed no chance to put forth \u201cveiled or unveiled intimations,\u201d to make a \u201cone-sided presentation\u201d or to otherwise act \u201cfrom malice or other base motives.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1707\" src=\"http:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/LRDCC20.jpg\" alt=\"LRDCC20\" width=\"132\" height=\"20\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>July 19, 2016 \u201cThe prosecutor has more control over life, liberty, and reputation than any other person in America. His discretion is tremendous. He can have citizens investigated and, if he is that kind of person, he can have this done to the tune of public statements and veiled or unveiled intimations. \u201cOr the prosecutor [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2617"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2622,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2617\/revisions\/2622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}