by CS1775 » Sat Jun 15, 2019 5:12 pm
RoyalHollow wrote: ↑Fri Jun 14, 2019 1:40 pm
For any Federal PDs in here:
How/when do you investigate your cases? (interview alibi witnesses, visit crime scenes, etc)
I've read a bunch of "A Day in the Life" type threads by PDs, and it is hard for me to understand when or how you actually do these things.
Curious as to why you want an answer from the Fed PD, as they have a much more "relaxed" practice environment than state/municipal PDs. Also, US Attorneys tend to be more diligent in terms of building up a case. The USAO wants a slam dunk win, thus they do more legwork than the average state prosecutor.
Both state PD agencies I've interned at have in-house investigators. The attorneys don't interview witnesses alone because the attorney can't be called to the stand if there's an issue with a witness. For example, if the person you interviewed gets hit and killed by a bus on their way home from work and the only other person alive who was there was the attorney, the attorney then becomes a witness and has to conflict-out of the case. So the investigators do the interview. However, attorneys can request to be present for witness interviews. If the attorney wants to be there, the interview would have to either be by phone or at a time convenient for all involved.
Visiting crime scenes would happen during the discovery phase and leading up to the trial if there is one. My supervising attorney this summer at a state PD basically said "if you don't visit the crime scene and the case is going to trial, that should be ineffective assistance." I plan on going to a couple crime scenes either by the end of the month or in early July with our investigator (same issue as before but worse - what if an attorney finds evidence or if there's no one else to testify?).
Most PDs at my agency this summer have defined office days where the attorney isn't in court, except those of us at my office in a more rural county. We just have court Tues-Fri and get office work done when we're not in court. This would include investigatory work.
[quote=RoyalHollow post_id=314495 time=1560534056 user_id=2888]
For any Federal PDs in here:
How/when do you investigate your cases? (interview alibi witnesses, visit crime scenes, etc)
I've read a bunch of "A Day in the Life" type threads by PDs, and it is hard for me to understand when or how you actually do these things.
[/quote]
Curious as to why you want an answer from the Fed PD, as they have a much more "relaxed" practice environment than state/municipal PDs. Also, US Attorneys tend to be more diligent in terms of building up a case. The USAO wants a slam dunk win, thus they do more legwork than the average state prosecutor.
Both state PD agencies I've interned at have in-house investigators. The attorneys don't interview witnesses alone because the attorney can't be called to the stand if there's an issue with a witness. For example, if the person you interviewed gets hit and killed by a bus on their way home from work and the only other person alive who was there was the attorney, the attorney then becomes a witness and has to conflict-out of the case. So the investigators do the interview. However, attorneys can request to be present for witness interviews. If the attorney wants to be there, the interview would have to either be by phone or at a time convenient for all involved.
Visiting crime scenes would happen during the discovery phase and leading up to the trial if there is one. My supervising attorney this summer at a state PD basically said "if you don't visit the crime scene and the case is going to trial, that should be ineffective assistance." I plan on going to a couple crime scenes either by the end of the month or in early July with our investigator (same issue as before but worse - what if an attorney finds evidence or if there's no one else to testify?).
Most PDs at my agency this summer have defined office days where the attorney isn't in court, except those of us at my office in a more rural county. We just have court Tues-Fri and get office work done when we're not in court. This would include investigatory work.