A Prosecutor’s Ethical Obligations as They Relate to Pre-Trial Discovery

A Prosecutor’s Ethical Obligations as They Relate to Pre-Trial Discovery

By Robert C. Phillips
Deputy District Attorney, Ret.
July, 2021

            It goes without saying that a prosecutor does indeed wield significant power.  While the loyalties of a defense attorney in any criminal case typically relate to but one person, i.e., the defendant, the prosecutor in a state case represents “The People of the State of California.”  Under California’s Government Code:  “The district attorney is the public prosecutor, except as otherwise provided by law.  The public prosecutor shall attend the courts, and within his or her discretion shall initiate and conduct on behalf of the people all prosecutions for public offenses.”[1] 

Similarly, a federal prosecutor, in effect, represents the entire country.  “The United States Attorney is the representative not of an ordinary party to a controversy, but of a sovereignty whose obligation to govern impartially is as compelling as its obligation to govern at all.”[2]

But with the power of a prosecutor comes a higher ....

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