Overall this is a pretty good description of our adversarial system of justice, however it is important to remember prosecutors have special ethical obligations

Overall this is a pretty good description of our adversarial system of justice, however it is important to remember prosecutors have special ethical obligations. Notwithstanding some creative and recent arguments by the Department of Justice that their prosecutors are not bound by state ethical rules (See e.g. The Thornburgh memo [1], but see 28 USC 530B [2]), most states have ethical rules which place special obligations upon prosecutors similar to ABA Model Rule 3.8 [3], which requires a prosecutor to, amongst other things, "refrain from prosecuting a charge that the prosecutor knows is not supported by probable cause" and "make timely disclosure to the defense of all evidence or information known to the prosecutor that tends to negate the guilt of the accused or mitigates the offense", as well as "except for statements that are necessary to inform the public of the nature and extent of the prosecutor's action and that serve a legitimate law enforcement purpose, refrain from making extrajudicial comments that have a substantial likelihood of heightening public condemnation of the accused". The comment to Rule 3.8 [4] makes clear a "prosecutor has the responsibility of a minister of justice and not simply that of an advocate". [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thornburgh_Memo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thornburgh_Memo [2] http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/28/530B http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/28/530B [3] http://www.americanbar.org/groups/professional_responsibility/publications/model_rules_of_professional_conduct/rule_3_8_special_responsibilities_of_a_prosecutor.html http://www.americanbar.org/groups/professional_responsibilit... [4] http://www.americanbar.org/groups/professional_responsibility/publications/model_rules_of_professional_conduct/rule_3_8_special_responsibilities_of_a_prosecutor/comment_on_rule_3_8.html http://www.americanbar.org/groups/professional_responsibilit...