So, I work for the Office of the Prosecutor. Back when I was at school, our professor was trying to help those of us going to work at international tribunals to raise some money for the summer. We tried to create a CLE on international criminal law (but failed...) But during that time, I was in the Career Development Office (CDO) having them send out invites to all their contacts who might be interested. As they were considering emailing the group of CO public defenders, they hesitated, saying that they shouldn't indicate that we would all be interning for international tribunal's prosecutors, because defense and prosecution don't like to attend events supporting each other.
This could be only one person's viewpoint, but it got me thinking. I never considered international criminal prosecutors and U.S. domestic prosecutors of the same part and parcel. (Disclaimer -what I am about to say has nothing to do with what I think of prosecutors, it just had to do with how I would feel if I was one. I have great respect for prosecutors, I just don't know how I myself would deal with the ethical issues that arise from being part of a system that I might not have that much ability to impact). International prosecutors are prosecuting perpetrators of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. They are the "big guys" who orchestrated a whole country to do things the whole world has agreed are bad (no small undertaking). U.S. domestic prosecutors, from my understanding, largely go after the "little guy" -people that are by no means innocent but are part of a larger picture of systematic oppression. I hate throwing these terms around without really knowing what I am talking about, so I actually started collecting everything that I read that leads me to this conclusion. Most recently, it was Correction Unit, an essay by Jonathan Franzen in his collection How to Be Alone. I would welcome anyone's feedback, disagreement, thoughts on this. I hope no one gets offended, but this is how I explained it, in simplified terms. I would feel bad as a U.S. domestic prosecutor, I don't as an international criminal prosecutor.
Since that conversation, I have been taking surveys of my peers and others who might have something to offer on the conversation. For the most part, people don't agree with me. Their arguments can be summarized similar to what I often hear about defense, defending heinous criminals, etc. Its about defending the process, not the individuals. Recently, a law student was visiting the STL to see if he was interested in working in international criminal law. A bunch of interns got together to go meet him for coffee, and I asked our supervisor to join us. I raised the question to all of them -do you see a major "moral" (for lack of a better word) difference between being an international criminal prosecutor and a U.S. domestic prosecutor. Our supervisor took the helm, and his ultimate conclusion was the same -prosecutors everywhere, when they set to their goals, are of the same mindset. Maybe not necessarily to get a conviction, but to do the best job for their case. Then we started talking about how being a U.S. prosecutor is different than perhaps being a prosecutor in another country, because of the nature of our criminal justice system. We spent a lot of time talking about how the sentencing in the U.S. is so extreme compared to other countries, it is somewhat on the level of Saudi Arabia. Our supervisor is French. He said you could get caught smoking a joint in France once and nothing will happen, eventually you might get a fine, jail would be harsh. But while he was visiting NYC, he decided to sit in on a court session, and was shocked to find that a nice young girl who had held the door for him on the way in was called up, convicted of smoking a joint, and sentenced to jail for 4 months. He recognized that she might have had a criminal history, but still, this conviction was shocking to him.
Anyway, at this point maybe my inquiry should stop. No matter where I go, it seems that both prosecutors and defense deal with the ethical issues that arise in their professions by dedicating themselves to the process. What worries me, however, is when we are all siloed in our respective roles -who is looking out for the bigger picture? The American people? I fear we have become too disinterested...
Any thoughts?
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