The World's Most Powerful People List -

Running head: POWERFUL PERSON
POWERFUL PERSON
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Authors Note

POWERFUL PERSON1
In the criminal justice system of the US, prosecutors are considered to be the most
powerful persons. There are some reasons for this consideration. It has been observed that to
control the criminal justice system several decisions have been made by prosecutors and often
limitless preference has been exercised by them while making those decisions. Sometimes, it has
been argued by numerous individuals that police officers are the most important persons as the
roles of the gatekeepers have been played by them in bringing individuals to the criminal justice
system (Lynch, 2014). Usually, the broad preferences have been made by the police officers
while taking decisions regarding the arrest of individuals for wrongful misconduct and there is
no doubt about that. In Miranda vs. Arizona [1966] 384 U.S. 436, 445 cases the court held that
for interrogating wrongdoers, police officers lay their hands on them. Apart from that the only
power of the police officers is to bring a wrongdoer into the courtroom. The power of keeping
the wrongdoers inside the correctional home lies with the prosecutors and they are the persons
who determinedly entrench the wrongdoers into the criminal justice system (Goldston, 2010). It
can be said that the power of charging and control over the procedure of plea bargaining
describes the actual role of a prosecutor in the executive branch of the government as a law
implementation officer. In this particular case, a quasi-judicial role had been served by the
prosecutor as it is the fundamental duty of a prosecutor to observe that, whether proper justice
has been given to the victim or not. In SeeBerger vs. The United States [1935] 295 U.S. 78 case
it has been observed that the several professional standards and codes and the Supreme Court
have recognized that the responsibility of the Public Prosecutor is not merely to seek justice, but
to prosecute (Goodrum, 2013).
Recently it has been observed that, in the majority of common law jurisdictions, the issue
of wrongful conviction has become a very common matter. High profile cases continuously

POWERFUL PERSON2
draw our attention not only to the adverse impact of an unlawful conviction on a person; they
also demonstrate how the elements of the criminal justice system have been broken. Numerous
researches have now adequately shown that several factors lead to unlawful convictions and
incarceration, usually in different degrees. Several factors, which are responsible for unlawful
convictions are incorrect identification and testimony of the eyewitnesses, mistakes of police and
prosecution, untrue confessions and over-reliance on informers who are under detention, and
illogical forensic science or misuse thereof (Leverick & Chalmers, 2014). Irrespective of the
suspected crime, the integrity of the US judicial system is extremely damaged when a person is
convicted unlawfully. Whether the offender was wrongly convicted for driving intoxicated or
killing, the consequences are the same yet there are additional holes in what is likely to be a still
broken justice system. Some researchers believe that aggressive police officers support the trend
by using legal infringements to bring criminals behind bars. On the other hand, some researchers
are of the view that it is the fault of the prosecutors who can take long to make a case. Another
tactic used by investigative teams may be the use of unreliable eyewitnesses to persuade judges
or so-called junk science. According to Gould & Leo (2010), the true position of a decent citizen
is indeed a jail under a government that unfairly confines any person. However, fixing and
avoiding unlawful convictions would assist the US people in reforming their justice system and
in helping them to re-enact the notion of ‘innocent until proven guilty’. The researches revealed
that unlawful convictions have a major effect on the actual victim of the crime and showed the
absence of service open to them. Additionally, the researchers have found that while over recent
decades, they have made important progress in identifying and assisting people who have been
unlawfully convicted, further work is necessary to fully appreciate the perspectives and the needs
of the initial victims of crime. What is evident is that numerous inquiries into false convictions