Opinion ID: 2169441
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: Basis for Separation-of-Powers Problem

Text: The Court's opinion does not squarely confront the separation-of-powers issue we carefully formulated in our order granting reargument. What concerned us at that time was the elemental consideration that basically a decision of a county prosecutor (and, latterly, of the Attorney General) as to whether to prosecute a suspect for crime is a function of the Executive Branch of Government, not the Judicial Branch. N.J. Const. (1947), Art. III, par. 1; Art. V, Sec. 1, par. 11; N.J.S.A. 2A:158-5; State v. Winne, 12 N.J. 152, 171 (1953); Morss v. Forbes, 24 N.J. 341, 388 (1957) (Weintraub, C.J., dissenting in part); Inmates of Attica Correctional Facility v. Rockefeller, 477 F. 2d 375, 379-380 (2 Cir.1973): United States v. Cox, 342 F. 2d 167 (5 Cir.), cert. den. 381 U.S. 935, 85 S.Ct. 1767, 14 L.Ed. 2d 700 (1965). The discharge of the discretionary charging function by prosecutors entails two kinds of decisions which will be seen to have differing relationships to a judicial power of oversight. One is the affirmative decision to prosecute a suspect; the other is the decision to forego prosecution of the suspect, whether absolutely or conditionally. That aspect of the PTI rule and guidelines which would authorize the Judiciary to veto a decision of the former kind is what creates the substantial separation-of-powers issue which engaged our interest in allowing reargument in this case. To present the issue starkly, the question is whether, had the Court not adopted R. 3:28 in its original form, it would have had the power, without legislation, to adopt a rule of court simply providing that any defendant indicted for crime could bring on a motion before the court for deferral of trial on a showing of the probability of his rehabilitation, with authority in the Court, over objection of the prosecutor, not only to defer trial but thereafter to dismiss the indictment upon a showing of defendant's rehabilitation after a specified period of time. I do not believe it can be seriously contended that such action by the Court would not be invalid as a raw usurpation of Executive authority by the Judiciary. [3] How, then, does R. 3:28, supplemented by Guideline 8, encompassing as it does the prospect of judicial veto in specified circumstances of a prosecutorial decision to prosecute a suspect, rise above the separation-of-powers bar hypothesized above? The answer is not in generalizations as to procedural alternatives to trial (p. 368) or the inherent authority to fashion remedies (p. 369). Projection of those ideas begs the question as to whether the underlying authority or jurisdiction as to the prosecution function is not in the executive rather than the judicial sphere. Analysis is not aided by dealing with PTI as an undifferentiated lump-concept. I submit, rather, that the key to the question of judicial power in the matter lies in the crucial difference, adverted to above, between a prosecutor's affirmative decision to prosecute a suspect (or indicted person) and his decision to desist from prosecution. The latter type of decision lies at the heart of the PTI process, and, as will be seen, is within the inherent oversight of the Judicial Branch.