Prosecutorial discretion

Prosecutorial discretion is the authority to decide whether to bring criminal charges and how to pursue them. It includes choices about charges, plea offers, and sentencing recommendations.

Charging decision: A prosecutor’s decision whether to file criminal charges and which offenses to allege. This is the first major exercise of discretion after reviewing a suspected offense.
Criminal procedure: The rules governing how criminal investigations, prosecutions, trials, and appeals are conducted. It provides the procedural framework within which prosecutors make discretionary choices.
Mandatory prosecution: A policy requiring prosecutors to pursue specified cases when defined legal criteria are met. It narrows the choice that prosecutorial discretion ordinarily permits.
Mass incarceration: The exceptionally high rate and scale of imprisonment in the United States, especially since the late twentieth century. Charging and plea choices can influence how many people enter prison and for how long.
Plea bargaining: Negotiation in which a defendant agrees to plead guilty, often in exchange for concessions from the prosecution. Prosecutors use discretion to decide whether to offer a plea and what terms to propose.
Criminal charge: A formal accusation that a person committed a specific criminal offense. Discretion determines which alleged offenses become formal charges.
Civil law legal system: A legal tradition based mainly on comprehensive codes and statutes rather than binding judicial precedent. Some civil-law systems use legality principles that more strongly require prosecution of eligible offenses.
Mandatory minimum sentence: A law requiring a court to impose at least a specified punishment for certain offenses. Charging decisions can determine whether a defendant faces a mandatory minimum.
Selective prosecution: A claim that authorities brought charges based on an impermissible distinction, such as race or protected speech. It tests whether a charging choice crossed constitutional limits.
Probable cause: A reasonable basis, grounded in facts, to believe that a crime occurred or a person committed it. It is a constitutional threshold for many arrests and charging processes, not a command to prosecute.

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