paper ideas

[mazzy]

i need a real ethical issue that a prosecuting attorney might face.
i have to write a 6 page paper on this topic for my professional ethics class and i cant come up with a good topic.
any ideas?

[AMB22]

An attorney is set to defend a rapist whom he knows is guilty but whom he also knows he can get off due to some technicality or something. The twist is that the defendant shows no remorse and may commit more rapes if he gets off free due to his attorney's good defense. Professional ethics in the adversarial legal system call for the attorney to zealous defend his client, however, this may result in more rapes.

That might work.

[mazzy]

that is a good idea, but i need something that a prosecuting attorney might have to deal with...that was more of a defense attorney issue. i appreciate your idea though

[dr_draino]

Asking for the death penalty when he/she is personally morally opposed to it?

[mazzy]

oh thats good....how does that work?
does the state or someone above the PA tell them to ask for the death penalty or is it something they choose on their own?

[Sonya]

Look at "Lawyer's Ethics in an Adversary System" by Monroe H. Freedman. He looks at a couple of cases where the demands of professional ethics are unclear, like: (1) Is it ever proper for a criminal defense lawyer to present perjured testimony? (2) to cross examine a truthful witness to make that witness appear to be lying?

[mazzy]

what i have to do in this paper is write about my future career and an ethical issue i might face and how i would deal with it.
i dont know for sure what i want to do with law...although i am leaning toward public interest so i thought i  wpould write about being a prosecuting attorney.
i am not personally morally opposed to the death penalty but i could fake it for a paper...or i guess i could make the issue that what if i was not really 100% sure the guilty party had commited the crime and now i was supposed to seek the death penalty.

[AMB22]

My fault..I glazed over the prosecuting attorney part. Conversely you could do a D.A. whom has public pressure to prosecute someone for a crime that although there is some evidence for, they do not think is guilty. Where is their allegiance? Look up the movie "murder on a sunday morning".

[mazzy]

thanks sonya and amb22

[amarain]

Don't laugh, but you might want to check out Law & Order scripts/synopses for some ideas. They're pretty heavy on the 'DA faces ethical dilemma' storylines and they're fairly realistic.