NCJ Number
191134
Journal
Criminal Law Update Volume: 8 Issue: 4 Dated: 2001 Pages: 4-12
Editor(s)
Dru Smith Fuller
Date Published
2001
Length
9 pages
Annotation
This article describes the functions of the Texas Attorney General's Prosecutor Assistance and Special Investigations Division.
Abstract
Whenever Texas district attorneys need help with a capital murder case, they can call upon the Texas Attorney General's Prosecutor Assistance and Special Investigations Division. The Division has connections to experts all over the country and can send evidence to the Department of Public Safety laboratory or many other forensic laboratories. The division provides assistance to local prosecutors in jury selection and during the punishment phase of trials. Jurors must decide whether the defendant remains a threat to society, which could determine whether the sentence is death or life in prison. The division produces audio-visual aids, photographs, diagrams, and other court exhibits. It also provides victim assistance. An investigator from the Division creates a file with data concerning every person mentioned during a trial, each piece of physical evidence, and every witness. These highly organized files are used later in the courtroom, indexed by a trial notebook that facilitates prosecutorial presentation.