PCE Resources

PCE and John Delaney, First Assistant District Attorney from the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office (retired) presented during this webinar. 

Author(s): Kristine Hamann, PCE

As police departments across the United States embrace the use of police body-worn cameras (“BWCs”), it is imperative that prosecutors be involved in the uptake process as early as possible. The cameras will inevitably capture a great deal of evidentiary material that will be used in every type of criminal prosecution. Thus, systems and policies must be developed to ensure that this evidence is properly captured and delivered to the prosecutor in a timely and usable way.

Author(s): Kristine Hamann, PCE

Prosecutors are obligated to provide timely and complete discovery, particularly with regard to exculpatory and impeachment material. The discovery process can be complex and time consuming. Failure to properly record discovery documents provided to the defense can jeopardize cases and put prosecutors at risk of being charged with ethical violations.

Author(s): Kristine Hamann, Rebecca Rader Brown

In May 2013, a Colorado man fails to show up to work. Concerned, the man’s boss visits his house, where the man’s roommate refuses to let the boss enter. The boss contacts the police, who launch a missing person investigation. Using cell tower technology, police are able to approximate the missing man’s location in the hours leading up to his disappearance.

Authors: PCE and National Black Prosecutors Association

As we know, prosecutors must be fact-based and fair in the pursuit of justice. Prosecutors cannot base their judgements on whim, bias or hunches. Studies have shown that all people have implicit biases that could influence their decisions. Training can help prosecutors to understand this issue and provide strategies for assuring that prosecutorial decisions are based on the facts and not predisposed by irrelevant implicit biases.

Author(s): Kristine Hamann, Rebecca Rader Brown

A prosecutor’s core mission is and has always been to promote justice and to protect the community by ensuring public safety. Over the past 30 years, the way prosecutors approach this mission has evolved. In place of the old, reactive criminal justice model, prosecutors and police are using new methods and evidence to take a proactive, broader approach to preventing, investigating, and prosecuting crime.

One of the many benefits of being part of the Best Practices network is the ability to share information with prosecutors across the country about promising programs and how to implement them. Prosecutors’ Center for Excellence (PCE) held a two-day conference in Boston on July 19 and 20, 2016 with prosecutors from 17 states in attendance. One topic was how to create community programs on a shoe string.

Here is a sampling of the varied – and excellent – programs highlighted during the meeting:

June 30, 2016 — Volume 15

There has been great scrutiny of police-involved fatalities and how they are handled by prosecutors. Here are four thoughtful approaches by prosecutors on how they have reported their findings when no criminal charges are brought (in alphabetical order by jurisdiction). Three articles on this subject are also included.

Author(s): PCE

Witness intimidation and witness tampering can occur in any case, from simple misdemeanors to homicides. It has a variety of consequences from the silencing of an entire community, to the murder of a witness, to the recantation of truthful testimony. Though witness intimidation is an insidious problem, there are strategies throughout the investigation and prosecution of a case that can help to keep a witness safe and reduce the impact of intimidation.

Author: Kristine Hamann