By District Attorney Ryan Sayers
2023 Vol. 26
With this article, we are halfway through 2023 already!
Over the past six months, we have generally covered almost all aspects of a criminal case—everything from a criminal investigation to search warrants to charges being filed to motions to trials to pleas to sentencing to appeals.
We have discussed in-depth how to use the Pennsylvania Sentencing Matrix for figuring out sentencing guidelines and prior records scores.
Also, took a slight detour to discuss the role of the District Attorney in regards to election law.
As you can see from all of these articles, the district attorney and all prosecutors handle a wide variety of issues and cases on a daily basis.
On any given day, we are at our desks reviewing and approving search warrants, taking calls from victims, working with police on investigations and charges and discussing cases with defense attorneys.
Additionally, we are regularly before a judge handling preliminary hearings, motions, sentencings, trials and appeals.
What is prevalent and key in all these different aspects of the criminal justice system is for the prosecutors in the district attorney’s office to exercise prosecutorial discretion.
All prosecutors have to look at each case individually to weigh the evidence, to take into consideration the wishes/needs of a victim, to advocate for what we believe to be the best interest of the general public and society and to manage the resources the taxpayers have provided to us in prosecuting these cases.
At the end of the day, we know that there will be people that read an article and disagree with how a case was handled.
We know that as public figures we will be scrutinized based on our decisions. That is part of the process and how our system was setup by our Founding Fathers.
However, as prosecutors it is our duty to uphold and protect the rights and processes enshrined in the Constitutions of the United States and Pennsylvania, and to seek justice for victims and society, which means that we have to do what is right and not necessarily what is popular.
That is the burden we gladly bear each day when we come to work for the people of this county and that all prosecutors bear for the people of this country.
Next week I will start answering some of the more specific questions about some of the topics that we have discussed so far this year, and I will begin addressing some more nuanced questions about the criminal justice system. The first of these questions will be in regards to bail.
Ryan Sayers is the elected District Attorney of Clearfield County, Pennsylvania.
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