ABSTRACT
Prosecutors have tenaciously protected their exercise of discretion and resisted attempts to commit their rules to widespread publication, arguing that separation of powers prohibits either the courts or legislative bodies from altering the discretionary aspects of prosecution. Prosecutors may differ on a particular goal of prosecution, or on a particular method of achieving a goal, but it is difficult to object to a more coherent and consistent basis for making case-processing decisions on behalf of the community. Prosecutors who wish to align themselves more closely with the community's interests can do so, by becoming aware of the barriers that have for so long distanced the prosecutor from the community and then stripping them away. In the United States, the prosecutor is part of the executive branch of government, so the prosecutor's policies are shielded also from judicial and legislative review under the Constitutional principle of separation of powers.
