Legal Question in Criminal Law in Michigan

Re: prosecutorial discretion on dissmissing a case

I am a prosecutor, so I should respond to this question.

As long as jeopardy has not attached in your case (the jury has been picked and sworn-in in your jury trial, or the first witness sworn-in in your bench trial), a prosecutor is generally able to freely dismiss a case. The same or different charges can be re-issued later because such a dismissal is done "without prejudice" ... meaning that the case is not forever dismissed, and a later charge from the same event can be issued.

It is not unusual for a prosecutor to reassess the strength of his/her case after the charge has been issued. The office that I work in has occasionally had to dismiss charges before trial that, upon receipt of new evidence, could not result in a conviction. Sometimes we re-issue other charges, sometime not.

I do not know of any reported/published appellate cases saying that a defendant can veto a prosecutor's decision to dismiss a case, but a judge can refuse to authorize the re-issued charges if the prosecution acted "in bad faith". That might happen if the defendant convinced the court that he would be prejudiced by the delay in re-issuing charges (such as witnesses no longer being available, etc.).

In closing, I must remind you that my job is not to "get a conviction"; it is to seek "justice". (And that's spelled J-U-S-T-I-C-E, not J-U-S-T U-S.) Every day, I make decisions that suspects/defendants don't like or agree with, but I'm using my own sense of right-and-wrong in deciding what charges --- if any --- to issue, what cases to take to trial, whether to plea bargain, etc. I represent my boss, and our entire county. My decisions are not "personal", regardless of who the defendant or his attorney are. Our office doesn't keep a "conviction batting average", and I don't get paid based on my conviction rate.