Prosecutor

The prosecutor is the chief legal representative of the prosecution in countries with either the common law adversarial system, or the civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the case in a criminal trial against an individual accused of breaking the law.

Common law jurisdictions

Prosecutors are typically lawyers who possess a law degree, and are recognized as legal professionals by the court in which they intend to represent society (that is, they have been admitted to the bar).

They usually only become involved in a criminal case once a suspect has been identified and charges need to be filed. They are typically employed by an office of the government, with safeguards in place to ensure such an office can successfully pursue the prosecution of government officials. Often, multiple offices exist in a single country, especially those countries with federal governments where sovereignty has been bifurcated or devolved in some way.

Public Prosecutor (TV series)

Public Prosecutor was an American television series produced in 1947–1948, which first aired in 1951.

Broadcast history

Public Prosecutor was the first dramatic series to be shot on film (in this case, 16 mm film to save production costs), instead of being performed and broadcast live.John Howard starred in the title role of a public prosecutor, along with Anne Gwynne and Walter Sande.

Jerry Fairbanks Productions filmed the pilot episode in Hollywood in 1947. After the NBC Television Network picked up the series, Fairbanks filmed 26 twenty-minute episodes for a planned network premiere in September 1948.

However, the series was pulled from the network schedule when NBC decided it preferred thirty-minute episodes.

Production of the still unseen series was suspended in October 1948 due to high costs and the lack of a national sponsor. Instead, the NBC anthology series Your Show Time became American television's first filmed dramatic series to be broadcast, in January 1949. The earliest syndicated airings of Public Prosecutor were in February 1951.