Q: Am I allowed to call my co defendants attorney to ask why he was dismissed of his count # charge but i have not...
What is prosecutorial discretion
A:
I think it’s safe to assume that you have an attorney representing you? You would never want to reach out to a prospective witness against you or their attorney without consulting your attorney, who undoubtedly has a game plan and strategy in place.
Often times with codefendants the prosecutor or assistant district attorney will negotiate a deal with one of the codefendants that involves an agreement to implicate or testify against the other defendant in order to secure a more favorable outcome.
“Prosecutorial discretion” simply means the prosecutor has made a decision NOT to pursue criminal charges against someone (here, your codefendant). That decision is commonly based on a victim’s refusal to cooperate in the prosecution (very common in domestic violence cases where wife or husband refuses to cooperate or come to court), their physical unavailability (moved away and can’t be reached), or their agreement to testify against their codefendant as mentioned above.
Bottom line, discuss this with your attorney. Best of luck!
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