{"id":1927,"date":"2023-05-26T16:43:35","date_gmt":"2023-05-26T20:43:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/american-criminal-law-review\/?page_id=1927"},"modified":"2025-05-12T11:09:19","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T15:09:19","slug":"a-fiduciary-theory-of-progressive-prosecution","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/american-criminal-law-review\/in-print\/volume-60-number-4-fall-2023\/a-fiduciary-theory-of-progressive-prosecution\/","title":{"rendered":"A Fiduciary Theory of Progressive Prosecution"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span id=\"page1332R_mcid7\" class=\"markedContent\"><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">Progressive prosecutors differ from their more traditional counterparts<\/span><\/span><span id=\"page1332R_mcid9\" class=\"markedContent\"> <span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">pri<\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">marily<\/span><\/span><span id=\"page1332R_mcid13\" class=\"markedContent\"> <span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">in the way in which they make decisions. They tend to bind their discretion<\/span><br role=\"presentation\" \/><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">by announcing categorical policies rather than making fact-based decisions case <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">by case. This Article catalogs the unusual degree of pushback progressive<\/span><\/span><span id=\"page1332R_mcid12\" class=\"markedContent\"> <span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">prose<\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">cutors<\/span><\/span><span id=\"page1332R_mcid17\" class=\"markedContent\"> <span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">have encountered from the public, legislatures, courts, police, and their <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">own subordinate prosecutors. Drawing on fiduciary theory, it explains this<\/span><\/span><span id=\"page1332R_mcid16\" class=\"markedContent\"> <span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">reac<\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">tion<\/span><\/span><span id=\"page1332R_mcid21\" class=\"markedContent\"> <span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">as a response to progressive prosecutors\u2019 abdication of their fiduciary role. <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">As a public fiduciary, prosecutors are entrusted with protecting the public\u2019s <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">abstract interest in justice, and an integral part of this role is exercising<\/span><\/span><span id=\"page1332R_mcid20\" class=\"markedContent\"> <span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">discre<\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">tion<\/span><\/span><span id=\"page1332R_mcid25\" class=\"markedContent\"> <span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">in individual cases based on a broad array of relevant considerations. This <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">ad hoc discretionary decision-making process assures the public that prosecutors <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">are drawing on their expertise to pursue justice in a basic sense rather than <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">coopting the process for the benefit of some subset of the public. The Article<\/span><\/span><span id=\"page1332R_mcid24\" class=\"markedContent\"> <span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">con<\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">cludes<\/span><\/span><span id=\"page1332R_mcid27\" class=\"markedContent\"> <span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">by suggesting ways in which progressive prosecutors can pursue their <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">conception of justice while still adhering to the fiduciary role.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/american-criminal-law-review\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/05\/60-4_a-fiduciary-theory.pdf\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Progressive prosecutors differ from their more traditional counterparts primarily in the way in which they make decisions. They tend to bind their discretionby announcing categorical policies rather than making fact-based [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9515,"featured_media":0,"parent":1913,"menu_order":4,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"abstract.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":"","_tec_slr_enabled":"","_tec_slr_layout":""},"class_list":["post-1927","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"ticketed":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/american-criminal-law-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/american-criminal-law-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/american-criminal-law-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/american-criminal-law-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9515"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/american-criminal-law-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1927"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/american-criminal-law-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1928,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/american-criminal-law-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1927\/revisions\/1928"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/american-criminal-law-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/american-criminal-law-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}