Deck 9: Ethical Issues for Criminal Prosecutors

Question 1

Which of the following is not a pretrial ethical issue?

A)Almost unlimited funding
B)Abusing the grand jury
C)Subornation of perjury
D)Overcharging criminal defendants

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Prosecutors are allowed to intimidate witnesses.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

Overcharging is the practice of charging a defendant with every conceivable criminal act committed or with the most serious form of a crime with the steepest penalty.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

It is permitted for the prosecutor to suggest that asking for a lawyer or hiring an attorney is evidence of guilt.

Question 5

Which of the following is not considered an ethical issue for the prosecutor during trial?

A)The kinds of questions asked
B)Subornation of perjury
C)Improper closing arguments
D)Newly discovered evidence

Question 6

Which of the following is not a primary type of criminal prosecutor in the United States?

A)U.S.attorney
B)District attorney
C)Defense attorney
D)Municipal attorney

Question 7

__________ are elected officials that operate at the borough or county level to represent local government in the prosecution of criminal defendants.

A)U.S.attorney
B)District attorney
C)Defense attorney
D)Municipal attorney

Question 8

Prosecutors have immunity from civil liability for wrongful convictions.

Question 9

__________ occurs when a person or an agency has competing loyalties,or loyalties that are at odds,because of the need to satisfy multiple roles,duties,or obligations.

A)Harmless error
B)Conflict of interest
C)All of the above
D)None of the above

Question 10

Post-conviction,prosecutors have an ethical duty to preserve a copy of both the discovery material provided to the defense and any physical evidence that was collected.

Question 11

Which of the following is a decision typically made by a prosecutor?

A)Whether to bring charges against criminal suspects before the court
B)Whether additional charges are added during trial
C)Who gets a plea
D)All of the above

Question 12

Which of the following is an ethical responsibility of prosecutors post-conviction?

A)Copies of the discovery material must be preserved.
B)They must be open to examining and testing newly discovered evidence.
C)They must be willing to admit to mistakes that have been made.
D)All of the above

Question 13

A material witness warrant is used to detain a witness until his/her testimony is complete if the prosecutor believes that the witness would not respond to a subpoena to appear.

Question 14

If a criminal prosecutor knows that one of his/her witnesses intends to give false testimony,the prosecutor cannot put that witness on the stand.

Question 15

Which of the following is true regarding the grand jury?

A)The grand jury is not empanelled to decide a defendant's guilt or innocence.
B)A grand jury is intended to be investigative in nature.
C)The grand jury determines whether there is probable cause.
D)All of the above

Question 16

The ethical prosecutor's mission is the search for truth in the pursuit of justice.

Question 17

Prosecutors are not allowed to use the fact that a defendant remained silent as evidence of guilt or duplicity.

Question 18

To rid prosecutorial culture of unethical behavior,there must be

A)Clear ethical and professional guidelines developed for criminal prosecutors that are universal
B)Mandated ethics training for all criminal prosecutors
C)Mandated discipline and reporting of prosecutorial misconduct to state bar associations by courts and supervisors
D)All of the above

Question 19

A criminal matter is always settled by the reading of the jury's verdict at the end of a trial.

Question 20

__________ exists when known facts and circumstances,of a reasonable trustworthy nature,are sufficient to justify a person of reasonable caution or prudence to believe that a crime has been or is being committed by the person being arrested.

A)Probable cause
B)Reasonable cause
C)Reasonable suspicion
D)Mere suspicion