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Why should prosecutors avoid using unfair tactics or bringing cases for political gain?

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illustration from Charles Dickens's Bleak House — Legal ethics Illustration by Hablot Knight Browne for Charles Dickens's *Bleak House*. Here Lady Dedlock is visited by her cunning old lawyer, who discovers her deepest secret and threatens to reveal it to her husband.

Prosecutors must avoid unfair tactics and politically motivated prosecutions because they represent the state, which has a fundamental ethical and legal duty to ensure that the innocent are acquitted just as surely as the guilty are convicted.1

By prioritizing justice over political gain, prosecutors uphold the integrity of the legal system and protect the rights of the accused. Employing unfair trial tactics risks leading to wrongful convictions, which violates the state's obligation to act with fairness and impartiality. Furthermore, because prosecutors are often granted extensive discretion in deciding whether to initiate criminal proceedings, they have a moral responsibility to ensure that their decisions are based on the merits of the case rather than personal or political advancement.12