PROSCRIBED1, civil law. Among the Romans, a man was said to be proscribed when a reward was offered for his head; but the term was more usually applied2 to those who were sentenced to some punishment which carried with it the consequences of civil death. Code, 9; 49.
PROSECUTION3, crim. law. The means adopted to bring a supposed offender4 to justice and punishment by due course of law.
2. Prosecutions5 are carried on in the name of the government, and have for their principal object the scourity and happiness of the people in general. Hawk6. B. 2, c. 25, s. 3; Bac. Ab. Indictment7, A 3.
3. The modes most usually employed to carry them on, are by indictment; 1 Chit. Cr. Law, 132; presentment of a grand jury; Ibid. 133; coroner's inquest; Ibid. 134; and by an information. Vide Merl. Repert. mot Accusation8.
PROSECUTOR9, practice. He who prosecutes11 another for a crime in the name of the government.
2. Prosecutors12 are public or private. The public prosecutor is an officer appointed by the government, to prosecute10 all offences; he is the attorney general or his deputy.
3. A private prosecutor is one who prefers an accusation against a party whom be suspects to be guilty. Every man may become a prosecutor, but no man is bound except in some few of the more enormous offences, as treason, to be one but if the prosecutor should compound a felony, he will be guilty of a crime. The prosecutor has an inducement to prosecute, because he cannot, in many cases, have any civil remedy until he has done his duty to society by an endeavor to bring the offender to justice. If a prosecutor act from proper motives14, me will not be responsible to the party in damages, though he was mistaken in his suspicions; but if, from a motive13 of revenge, he institute a criminal prosecution without any reasonable foundation, he may be punished by being mulcted in damages in an action for a malicious15 prosecution.
4. In Pennsylvania a defendant16 is not bound to plead to an indictment where there is a private prosecutor, until his name shall have been indorsed on the indictment as such, and on acquittal of the defendant, in all cases except where the charge is for a felony, the jury may direct that he shall pay the costs. Vide 1 Chit. Cr. Law, 1 to 10; 1 Phil. Ev. Index, h. t.; 2 Virg. Cas. 3, 20; 1 Dall. 5; 2 Bibb. 210; 6 Call. 245; 5 Rand. 669; and the article Informer.
PROSPECTIVE17. That which is applicable to the future; it is used in opposition18 to retrospective. To be just, a law ought always to be prospective. 1 Bouv. Inst. n. 116.
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