Court Opinion

ID: 9567768
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:57:30.81836+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T10:20:36.022096
License: Public Domain

Justice MITCHELL
concurring in the result.
I concur in the result reached by the majority. I am unable to agree, however, with the apparent view of the majority that the District Attorney somehow behaved improperly or unethically if his conduct violated the Prosecution Function Standards of the American Bar Association Standards for Criminal Justice. Those standards have no force or effect in North Carolina or in the overwhelming number of jurisdictions of this nation. The District Attorneys of North Carolina — like the members of this Court — are independently elected constitutional officers who have performed their constitutionally prescribed functions for more than two centuries without officious instructions from the American Bar Association or other private organizations. I believe that our District Attorneys are quite capable of continuing to perform those functions without such assistance and that the “Prosecution Function Standards” cited by the majority should not be relied upon in this jurisdiction.