Prosecutorial Ethics: New Insights After 75 Years of Jurisprudence (Feature: The Prosecutor‪)‬

IN APRIL OF 1935 the United States Supreme Court reversed a conviction due to the prosecutor's misconduct and unethical behavior at trial. Berger v. U.S., 295 U.S. 78 (1935). The Supreme Court in Berger found the prosecutor "misstated facts ... conducting himself in a thoroughly indecorous and improper manner ... was undignified and intemperate" Id. at 85. This case is a must-read for current prosecutors and anyone interested in becoming one. The reason the Court was so harsh on the prosecutor was the great respect the Court has for such an important part of our system. The same court, berating the actions of the unethical prosecutor, goes on to define the prosecutor's role. The Court tells us that the prosecutor: "is a representative not of an ordinary part to a controversy, but of a Sovereignty whose obligation to govern impartially is as compelling as its obligation to govern at all; and whose interest, therefore in a criminal prosecution is not that it shall win a case, but that justice shall be done" Id. at 88.