{"id":188,"date":"2013-02-24T05:10:22","date_gmt":"2013-02-24T05:10:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.massachusettscriminaldefenselawyerblog.com\/2013\/02\/limiting-the-power-of-prosecut.html"},"modified":"2013-02-24T05:10:22","modified_gmt":"2013-02-24T05:10:22","slug":"limiting-the-power-of-prosecut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/limiting-the-power-of-prosecut\/","title":{"rendered":"Limiting the power of prosecutors in criminal cases in light of Aaron Swartz"},"content":{"rendered":"

When a suspect is arrested, one of the main concerns for Massachusetts defense attorney<\/a> is the power of the prosecutor who will be the person who decides what to charge a defendant with. This discretion of what to charge a suspect with gives prosecutors tremendous power in the legal system, power that many people feel has to be limited. Nowhere was this power more evident than in the case of Aaron Swartz<\/a>. Swartz was arrested for downloading millions of academic articles and placing them online. The federal government stepped in to “send a message” and charged Swartz with several felonies including federal fraud and computer felonies. Swartz was faced with 35 years in prison, but the prosecutor offered a plea bargain of six months in prison, which Swartz rejected. On January 11, Swartz took his own life causing outrage over the prosecutor’s actions.<\/p>\n

It is common for prosecutors to charge people with multiple felonies in hopes of getting a plea bargain accomplished. With Swartz, the prosecutor hoped that Swartz would take the plea bargain for six months when Swartz saw that losing at trial could potentially put him in prison for 35 years. Prosecutor’s make their name off of winning cases and charging a suspect with felonies and offering a plea bargain to a less sever crime is often an easy way to scare a defendant into agreeing.<\/p>\n

A main reason that a prosecutor has so much power is the procedure for charging<\/a> a defendant with a crime. In the Swartz case, that involved a federal prosecutor. To charge Swartz with a federal crime, the prosecutor needed to secure an indictment from a grand jury. The indictment proceeding consists of only the prosecuting attorney delivering evidence to show there is probable cause to charge a suspect with a crime. The grand jury consists of 16-23 members and if at least 12 find probable cause, and indictment is returned and the charges against the suspect are formally brought.<\/p>\n

Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When a suspect is arrested, one of the main concerns for Massachusetts defense attorney is the power of the prosecutor who will be the person who decides what to charge a defendant with. This discretion of what to charge a suspect with gives prosecutors tremendous power in the legal system, power that many people feel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-criminal-trials"],"yoast_head":"\nLimiting the power of prosecutors in criminal cases in light of Aaron Swartz — Massachusetts Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog — February 24, 2013<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When a suspect is arrested, one of the main concerns for Massachusetts defense attorney is the power of the prosecutor who will be the person who decides — February 24, 2013\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/limiting-the-power-of-prosecut\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Limiting the power of prosecutors in criminal cases in light of Aaron Swartz — Massachusetts Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog — February 24, 2013\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"When a suspect is arrested, one of the main concerns for Massachusetts defense attorney is the power of the prosecutor who will be the person who decides — February 24, 2013\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Michael DelSignore\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Limiting the power of prosecutors in criminal cases in light of Aaron Swartz — Massachusetts Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog — February 24, 2013","description":"When a suspect is arrested, one of the main concerns for Massachusetts defense attorney is the power of the prosecutor who will be the person who decides — February 24, 2013","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/limiting-the-power-of-prosecut\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Limiting the power of prosecutors in criminal cases in light of Aaron Swartz — Massachusetts Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog — February 24, 2013","twitter_description":"When a suspect is arrested, one of the main concerns for Massachusetts defense attorney is the power of the prosecutor who will be the person who decides — February 24, 2013","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Michael DelSignore","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/limiting-the-power-of-prosecut\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/limiting-the-power-of-prosecut\/"},"author":{"name":"Michael DelSignore","@id":"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f0bc58f94b3abb11fcd52cf8961c0a6e"},"headline":"Limiting the power of prosecutors in criminal cases in light of Aaron Swartz","datePublished":"2013-02-24T05:10:22+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/limiting-the-power-of-prosecut\/"},"wordCount":609,"articleSection":["criminal trials"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/limiting-the-power-of-prosecut\/","url":"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/limiting-the-power-of-prosecut\/","name":"Limiting the power of prosecutors in criminal cases in light of Aaron Swartz — Massachusetts Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog — February 24, 2013","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-02-24T05:10:22+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f0bc58f94b3abb11fcd52cf8961c0a6e"},"description":"When a suspect is arrested, one of the main concerns for Massachusetts defense attorney is the power of the prosecutor who will be the person who decides — February 24, 2013","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/limiting-the-power-of-prosecut\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/limiting-the-power-of-prosecut\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/limiting-the-power-of-prosecut\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Limiting the power of prosecutors in criminal cases in light of Aaron Swartz"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/","name":"Massachusetts Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog","description":"Published by Massachusetts Criminal Defense Attorney \u2014 Michael DelSignore","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f0bc58f94b3abb11fcd52cf8961c0a6e","name":"Michael DelSignore","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2c2feb8b4aa63cb661df76a3a12db20d4c03eb82a70a095b3d26cfac38d5dc0b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2c2feb8b4aa63cb661df76a3a12db20d4c03eb82a70a095b3d26cfac38d5dc0b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2c2feb8b4aa63cb661df76a3a12db20d4c03eb82a70a095b3d26cfac38d5dc0b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Michael DelSignore"}}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}