| Prosecutor's office | |
|---|---|
| Link to the template page | |
| |
| Organization type | Law enforcement |
| Headquarters | Prosecutor's Building |
| Leader | Office chiefs:[1]
Head prosecutors:[1] |
| Organizational structure | Currently employed prosecutors:
Formerly employed prosecutors: |
| Affiliated groups | Criminal Affairs Department Police department |
| Status | Active |
| Shi-Long Lang |
| The whole lot of you can't be trusted. "A prosecutor who never lost in 40 years"? "Every defendant must be found guilty"? Fueled by those ideas, is it any wonder that courts produce nothing but falsities and lies!? |
The Los Angeles prosecutor's office is the controlling body for the city's prosecutors. This prosecutor's office is known for having several prodigies, such as Miles Edgeworth, Franziska von Karma and Klavier Gavin, of whom the former two have gained national and even international attention. Miles Edgeworth in particular was dubbed the top prosecutor in the United States at one time. The prosecutor's office resides in the aptly named Prosecutor's Building.
Role in law enforcement
The prosecutor's office maintains a close, albeit strained, partnership with the Criminal Affairs Department and police department. While a prosecutor can be placed in charge of a crime scene investigation, police officers and criminal affairs detectives tend to do the actual field work of collecting evidence. The prosecutor will occasionally participate in the actual collection of evidence, notably in the murders of Byrne Faraday and Mack Rell, as well as the Buddy Faith murder case. However, the prosecutor's main job is in having a suspect arrested for the investigated crime, building a case against said suspect using the collected evidence, and then presenting the case against the defendant in his or her subsequent trial. The prosecutor is also responsible for maintaining the soundness of his or her case against opposition from either the defendant or a defense attorney representing him or her. As representatives of the state in criminal trials, prosecutors have a responsibility to the state to ensure that criminals are met with due punishment for their crimes.
Leadership structure and possibilities
In general, a prosecutor can be promoted to "High Prosecutor", which comes with some benefits such as being better informed about the inner workings of the judicial system and certain semi-classified cases. Above that rank, there are two positions that have been called "Chief Prosecutor".[1] One of the positions functions as an overseer, who is in charge of managing trials to ensure that the prosecutors in charge have what they need.[2] The other position is essentially the chief of the prosecutor's office itself, who has the power and influence to reprimand and penalize other prosecutors, alter aspects of trials, appoint prosecutors to investigate cases, and look over evidence to be used in trials. The office chief is still a prosecutor and can take charge of particularly high-profile cases.
It is also possible to switch between a prosecutor position and another job within the judicial system, and carry over any status that they have. For example, Diego Armando switched from defense to prosecution and immediately carried over his somewhat legendary reputation, while Lana Skye was transferred from a distinguished detective job to the seat of the head prosecutor.
Occasionally, the office will call upon the help of international prosecutors such as Franziska von Karma or Nahyuta Sahdmadhi.
Reputation
The prosecutor's office has developed a largely negative reputation over the last fifty years due to various allegations of corruption. Manfred von Karma, who started a legendary career with a perfect win record in 1976, was one particular target of such allegations, which included rumors of back-alley deals, forged evidence and rigged witness testimonies. His student, Miles Edgeworth, described the man as willing to do anything for a guilty verdict. However, no solid proof of these allegations existed, partly because of the great influence and connections that von Karma wielded in the justice system due to his prestige. Consequently, von Karma gained only praise within the prosecutor's office, earning him numerous King of Prosecutors Trophies over the years.
All this began to change in 2001, when defense attorney Gregory Edgeworth managed to prove the questionable nature of some of von Karma's evidence and methods. The prosecutor received the only penalty in his long career for this, and he later opportunistically murdered Edgeworth in what would come to be known as the DL-6 Incident. Von Karma then adopted Edgeworth's son Miles and raised both him and his own daughter Franziska to become ruthless prosecutors like him. Due to von Karma's training, Miles Edgeworth became just as cold, valuing a "perfect trial" more than finding out the truth, and the reputation of the prosecutor's office continued to plummet.
The aftermath of the SL-9 Incident resulted in major changes in leadership, putting Damon Gant in the police chief's seat and making Lana Skye the Chief Prosecutor, as well as demoting one detective and firing another. This caused a rift between the Criminal Affairs Department and the prosecutor's office due to lingering questions surrounding the incident and renewed rumors of corruption among the prosecutors. The case would not be put to rest until two years later, when Gant was exposed as the one behind the murder of Neil Marshall, the final victim of SL-9.
Von Karma's murder of Gregory Edgeworth did not come to light until 15 years after the fact, when defense attorney Phoenix Wright figured out what had happened. The legendary prosecutor was arrested for his crimes, no doubt harming the prosecutor's office's reputation even further. However, the incident did lead to Miles Edgeworth reevaluating his role as a prosecutor so that, instead of perfection, he instead pursued the truth entirely. His subsequent actions have exposed other corrupt individuals, including fellow High Prosecutor Jacques Portsman and Prosecutorial Investigation Committee head Bansai Ichiyanagi, the latter of whom was found to have manipulated multiple cases for his own gain during his tenure as chief of the prosecutor's office.
The declining reputation of the prosecutor's office culminated in the dark age of the law, sparked by the conviction of Simon Blackquill in the UR-1 Incident and the disbarment of Phoenix Wright for presenting forged evidence. The entire legal world was caught up in a new standard, where prosecutors and defense attorneys alike would do anything they could get away with to win. There seemed to be little hope for this situation to change until Miles Edgeworth's promotion to office chief and Wright's exoneration. This allowed them to set a plan in motion to bring out the true culprit behind the UR-1 Incident.
Notes and references
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Due to differences between the Japanese and American judicial systems, there were troubles during localization that caused both Lana Skye and the prosecutor that Redd White calls in Turnabout Sisters to be called "Chief Prosecutors". However, they are supposed to be two different people in different positions.
- ↑ Lana: I'm responsible for overseeing every trial handled by prosecutors in this district.
Lana: I make sure the prosecutors have what they need to do the job, and manage every aspect.
Lana: Those are my responsibilities, in a nutshell.
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. Capcom. Episode: Rise from the Ashes (in English). 2005.