The pretrial process is described as a meeting between the defendant and his attorney with the state attorney to clarify issues about the case. According to Worrall (2019) “once a suspect is arrested, initial appearance takes place where the suspect is brought before a judge or magistrate.” However, initial appearance is not present in all cases. Guilty pleas are common during pretrial. The process involves five steps. In the first step, pretrial officers conduct interview with the arrestee. After the interview, the information collected is verified in the second step. Court appearance occurs in the third stage. The last stage is supervision where specific conditions are set after release. Pretrial process ensures that there is light backlog of cases going into full trial. The objective of pretrial process is to solve cases that can be handled without going into full trial. During pretrial, either the prosecutor or defense attorney can file motions regarding the case. For instance, a file to dismiss the case can be filed trying to press the judge to drop the case if there is enough evidence exonerating the suspect. The defense attorney can also file a motion to suppress evidence. Such a motion can be filed to stop certain evidence from presentation in court during case proceedings. Prosecutorial misconduct is a term used in jurisprudence referring to a scenario where the acts in an illegal manner, or fails to act leading to a scenario where justice is denied, or delayed. Joy (2006) argues that, “prosecutorial misconduct is one of the major factors underlying wrongful convictions.” Prosecutors are supposed to remain unbiased and professional in their activities. Any form of misconduct should be reported and punished to ensure that they do not stand on the way of justice. According to Joy (2006) “many prosecutors engage in prosecutorial misconduct since they believe they can easily get away with it.” It is upon the criminal justice system to seal all loopholes to prevent such characters from tainting the image of the whole system.
References
Joy, P. A. (2006). The relationship between prosecutorial misconduct and wrongful convictions: Shaping remedies for a broken system. Wisconsin Law Review, 2006 (2), 399-429.
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Worrall, J. L. (2019). Criminal Procedure: From Contact to Appeal. 6 th Edition. Pearson.
