Prosecutors have immense power in the criminal justice system. They decide whom to charge with crimes, what punishment to seek and what evidence to use at trial. State and national legal and ethical standards serve as a check on that power. These rules are meant to deter prosecutors from withholding exculpatory evidence, failing to disclose expert witnesses and making inappropriate trial statements, among other improper acts.
In Ohio, prosecutorial misconduct happens when a prosecutor violates a law meant to guarantee the right to a fair trial, even unwillfully, and that improper conduct prejudices a defendant's constitutional due process protections, requiring the court to overturn the conviction. Prosecutors can also engage in improper conduct that violates those laws but does not require reversal of the conviction. This may also involve not taking adequate measures to be certain that other elements of the justice system, including the police, are also meeting their obligations to provide information related to the prosecution to the defendants and their counsel.
In other states and in academic articles, improper conduct is often also referred to as prosecutorial misconduct, but in Ohio the latter term specifically implies that the case was reversed.
