Editing Prosecutor (section)

=== Germany ===
In Germany, the ''[[Staatsanwaltschaft|Staatsanwalt]]'' ("state attorney") is a life-tenured public official in the senior judicial service belonging to the same [[corps]] as [[judge]]s. The Staatsanwalt heads pre-trial criminal investigations, decides whether to press a charge or drop it, and represents the government in criminal courts. The Staatsanwalt not only has the "professional responsibility" not to withhold exculpatory information, but is also required by law to actively determine such circumstances and to make them available to the defendant or the defense attorney. If the Staatsanwalt is not convinced of the defendant's guilt, the state attorney is required to plead against or in favor of the defendant according to the prosecutor's own assessment.<ref>RiStBV, No. 138/139.</ref> Prosecution is [[compulsory prosecution|compulsory]] if the prosecutor has sufficient evidence to convict.<ref>{{citation|volume=41|publisher=U. Chi. L. Rev.|page=468|date=1973–1974|title=The Rule of Compulsory Prosecution and the Scope of Prosecutorial Discretion in Germany|author=Herrmann, Joachim|url=http://heinonlinebackup.com/hol-cgi-bin/get_pdf.cgi?handle=hein.journals/uclr41&section=33|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110711161736/http://heinonlinebackup.com/hol-cgi-bin/get_pdf.cgi?handle=hein.journals%2Fuclr41&section=33|archive-date=11 July 2011}}</ref>