View Point Of A Prosecutor
Mike McGinty, the Commonwealth Attorney for Williamsburg/ James City County was kind enough to meet with me to discuss these issues, ideas for change and the philosophy behind the way things are. He certainly heard and understood my concerns, saying that he "didn't view the problem lightly".
Still, he rejected my suggestions for change on various grounds and he wasn't able to suggest anything aside from the current system as an alternative. I found the meeting to be informative and I felt that many of the things he addressed affirmed my beliefs and my need to continue to fight for change.
Here is a list of questions from the interview:
Questions For The Commonwealth Attorney
1) Do you agree that a situation may arise in which a private citizen would feel compelled to challenge your decision regarding the prosecution of a crime against them?
2)How do you feel about the concept that all cases in which a crime has been committed should be tried, regardless of the probable chance for conviction?
3) Do you feel that justice is served by trying only cases you are sure will win?
4)How do you view a survivor of a crime’s right to be heard?
5)Do you understand the extent of silencing you subject this survivor to by denying him/her the right to a Grand Jury hearing?
6)How do you feel about the concept that the Grand Jury acts as a “rubber- stamp” for your decisions? If this is the case, doesn’t this make the Grand Jury merely a purposeless formality?
7) What type of records are available from your office regarding statistics on how many sexual offenses are brought before you vs. how many receive prosecution? Other violent crimes?
8) What is the current process for paperwork regarding the denial of prosecution to sexual offenses? Is a Complaint Review form filed? Are the reasons for denial of prosecution made public?
9) Do you feel well trained in identifying and responding to traumatic stress reactions? As you must deal with this quite a lot in your field, would you like to receive more training to understand and respond more effectively to these reactions on the part of witnesses?
10)“I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of society but the people themselves”. This is a quote from your office’s website. Do you feel comfortable and sure that your actions always represent “the people” themselves? How can this “ultimate power” be in the hands of the “people themselves” if they are powerless to disagree with the decision that you make?How do you feel about the fact that there is no avenue of appeal (other than the aforementioned examples) or disagreement available to the victims of crimes that you deny prosecution?Do you understand the flaws in the reasoning that current avenues of complaint (civil court, voting in the next election) are adequate?
Summary of his response:
Mr. McGinty and I were in agreement upon the fact that a situation may arise in which a victim disagrees with the Commonwealth Attorney's decision not to prosecute the perpetrator in his/her case. We also agree that there is no real avenue of redress for this victim other than the "court of public opinion" or voting against that Commonwealth Attorney in the next election.
I was informed that the only records kept by the office of the Commonwealth Attorney in Virginia is the number of wins versus losses in cases that were brought to trial. There is no record of how many cases that are brought before the Commonwealth Attorney versus how many he/she brings to trial.
Where we digressed, was in our thoughts about changes that should be made to allow the dissenting victim the right to pursue further action.
About Civilian Review of the Commonwealth Attorney by means of keeping statistics and a standardized Complaint Review Form, his objections were:
*keeping of statistics may lead to a situation in which cases become prosecuted based on "averages" (i.e not prosecuting certain types of cases to fill quota on other types of cases).
*concerns for the privacy of the victim in regards to the reason for lack of prosecution being listed and made publicly available (even with victim's name and identifying information with held)
About establishing an Avenue of Appeal for a dissenting victim through utilization of the existing Virginia Special Grand Jury system:
*the assertion that the "buck has to stop somewhere" and that under current law, this is with the elected Commonwealth Attorney who is sworn to represent the best interests of "the people"
*concern about the integrity of independant authority within the criminal justice system.
About establishing prosecutorial accountability by means of declatory judgments:
*concern that a prosecutor may be influenced to take cases he/she doesn't believe should be tried due to pressure from past declatory judgments on their record.
* need fo a legislative act that would not likely pass
Below is a list of questions that I posed to Mr. McGinty in order to clarify some of the ideas we were exploring, for which I have not yet recieved a response:
1)What are YOUR thoughts or suggestions on addressing this issue?
2)How do view the possibility that some cases may not be prosecuted because they are "difficult" instead of "impossible" to prove?
3)How do you feel about the concept that ALL cases in which a crime is believed to have been committed should be tried, regardless of the "probable" chance of conviction? Do you think that justice is served by only trying cases which have a high probability of garnering a conviction?