Recently, I was visiting with a “Fine American” at his office in Salem. This particular office is intricately woven into the fabric of the past and future of our community. I walked through the arched brick masonry and entered his office door. I was immediately greeted by the Fine American and his wife. She is the perfect combination of charm and insight; a devoted and understanding companion and partner. The couple sat in the kitchen in the back of the building. Although retirement at this stage would be the natural progression in their life, a man and woman of this caliber will never be allowed to retire. They will always be needed in this community.
We had coffee and discussed the same things that have been discussed in that office since prior to my birth. We were joined by another wise associate of the Fine American. We began discussing the current state of criminal justice in Dent County. I tortured my listeners for longer than I care to admit. I voiced frustration with my prior efforts to sufficiently engage the public in a dialogue concerning an effective strategy for criminal justice and community betterment. My audience politely listened for an amount of time they will never be able to recover. The wise associate diagnosed frustration held by many citizens continually seeing the same defendants in the same news media and on the same social media. He knew the arrest, preliminary hearing and determination of guilt were three phases of the process that received separate media attention, and a partial explanation the frustration. A challenge was submitted to me to address this issue and other aspects of criminal justice. A hand-shake sealed the deal.
Law enforcement officers play a vital role in the criminal justice. They come in many forms; sheriff’s deputies, police officers, code officers, highway patrolmen, drug task force officers, conservation agents, fire marshals and park rangers comprise the bulk of the local players involved.
City police officers and code officers report to the city prosecutor for ordinance violations. These same officers report to the county prosecutor for any state offenses. The remaining agencies refer to the county prosecutor for charging decisions and assistance in the investigation of offenses.
All of these agencies require training and certification prior to being given the authority to seek charges for an offense. They are in the problem-solving business and deal with a variety of situations involving violence, child abuse, theft, substance abuse and people suffering mental health disorders that have unfortunately fallen through the cracks of social service.
In Dent County, there are two separate prosecuting attorney’s offices. One prosecutor works for the City of Salem and one for state government. A city prosecutor handles city ordinance violations that occur within the city limits, represents the city and is appointed to the position. A county prosecutor handles all criminal statute offenses that occur in the county, advises county officials and is an elected position. Each prosecutor has the awesome power to institute criminal charges for offenses that occur in their jurisdiction. Each office operates separately and independently. Assistant prosecutors are utilized by the prosecutor as an extension of his office. Federal prosecutors also have jurisdiction in our county, but they are not as involved as the local prosecutors and do not reside or have an office in Dent. Federal judges and prosecutors are important, but they will not be discussed herein.
This is an oversimplified statement, but there are two types of judges in the municipal and state
criminal justice system. We have one associate judge and two circuit judges. Dent County is one of five counties that comprise the 42nd Judicial Circuit, comprised of Dent, Crawford, Reynolds, Iron and Wayne County. Each county has an elected associate judge that is primarily responsible for the county, but are also subject to assignment in cases outside of the county where they were elected. The two circuit judges are elected by registered voters in the entire circuit. Judges are called upon to make sometimes controversial decisions involving the citizens that have elected them. That would sound like a losing formula, but our judges have found a way. These judges can be called upon any time of day or night, which happens often, due to time constraints involved in the administration of criminal justice.
Infractions, misdemeanors and felonies are the three classifications for criminal offenses.
• Infractions can only be punished by fines and are minor traffic offenses.
• Misdemeanors are crimes in which a person convicted may be sentenced to a term of imprisonment of no more than one year.
• Felonies are the most serious in nature and range in punishment from a short time in jail and up to life imprisonment or death.
Every crime has a minimum and maximum range of punishment that must be followed by the court.
The decision of a prosecutor to file charges against someone is known as a charging decision.
This decision is one of the most powerful duties of the prosecutor. If you have been a customer of the justice system, you will recall the impact it had on your life.
Charging decisions are made by prosecutors in reliance on allegations made by law enforcement. Law enforcement officers formally communicate these allegations through the issuance of a ticket or probable cause statements.
Tickets are issued for relatively minor offenses, while probable cause statements are utilized for offenses of a more serious nature. If you are reading this, there is a decent likelihood that you have been issued a traffic ticket at some point in your life. I know this to be true as residents love to remind me of their experience when they see me. The decision to prosecute the citizens that elect prosecutors comes at an obvious cost. Defendants have family members and friends that have an interest in the case. The charging decision should never involve politics in order to insure the integrity of the system. Inevitably, there are times when the prosecutor must recuse from a case due to a variety of reasons. The most common recusal occurs when the prosecutor is too closely affiliated with the defendant or victim. In this circumstance, the court will appoint a special prosecutor for the investigation and prosecution of the crime. Every year I am asked to prosecute cases outside of our county due to a conflict of interest by the sitting prosecutor. Every year I ask a judge to appoint another prosecutor to do the same for me.
That concludes the first installment. Up next, we will cover preliminary hearings and an explanation of why it often takes more than a year to conclude a felony case.
