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Interesting new paper on prosecutorial discretion in "easy" cases

By Douglas A. Berman

Thanks to SSRN here, I see that Josh Bowers has a very interesting looking new paper concerning prosecutorial discretion. The piece is titled "Commonsense Discretion," ans here is its abstract: Charging discretion is no monolith. Instead, prosecutors consider three sets of reasons to decline or pursue charges: legal reasons, administrative reasons, and equitable reasons.  The conventional wisdom is that prosecutors are best positioned to evaluate these reasons.  Consequently, prosecutors are granted almost unfettered charging discretion.  More narrowly, when prosecutors decline or pursue charges for equitable reasons, they exercise their prerogative unchecked. This is defensible only if prosecutors are most competent to exercise equitable discretion...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on March 22, 2010 (boomark / email).