How many 'layers' of potential prosecutors exist in America

Factual Questions
1

I believe there are six layers of judges, three on the state and three on the federal. District, appellate and Supreme.

With law enforcement you have city, county, state and federal. There are also a ton of law enforcement agencies on the state and federal level, my impression is there is usually only one level of law enforcement on the city or county level. Ie, on the federal level you have fbi, Dea, atf, etc. On the city or county level you won’t have tons of different law enforcement agencies, I don’t think.

What about prosecutors? Is there some overarching system? It seems there are a lot of people who can bring charges for a crime.

City prosecutor
County prosecutor
State attorney general
Federal attorney General
Doj district lawyer
Special counsel
independent counsel

Are there more? Like judges, are there only two layers of prosecutors (state and federal)? I know there are county and city prosecutors, but aren’t they acting to enforce state law just like the state ag?

Basically, what all positions allow you to being charges against someone for a crime and what kind of crime (state vs federal).

2

Colorado has a category called “Home Rule cities”; which means that such a city is semi-autonomous from the state. Such a city has a city charter, which is the equivalent of a constitution. These cities are empowered to make their own laws. They also have independent courts, and they have prosecutors on staff, although those individuals may be called something else.

On the flip side, counties are just an administrative arm of the state. They can make certain laws, but their law-making power is extremely limited. They don’t have independent courts or prosecutors, and the Sheriff’s role is mainly limited to enforcing state law.

3

It depends how you define a layer. Most of these are really branches. “City prosecutors” are rare; typically, they only exist where there is no county- or circuit-level prosecutor’s office.

Other than what you list, there are also specialized prosecutors. There’s the various military branch JAG offices, which serve as both prosecution and defense in courts-martial. There are state and federal agencies which can bring prosecutions independent of the DOJ or state equivalents, like the SEC’s enforcement division or state insurance fraud divisions. There are territorial U.S. attorneys for places like Guam. There are law enforcement agencies which operate only on Indian reservations.

It’s pretty rare that more than one or two different prosecutors’ offices are empowered to bring charges for the same crime. A state attorney might prosecute a financial conspiracy which also involves federal wire fraud charges, or something.

4

Nitpick
Some states don’t have an intermediate appellate level of courts. Just trial courts and Supreme Court.

In addition, some cities have their own court system. In Seattle, for example, there are county and municipal courts for minor disputes below the county Superior Courts, which are courts of general jurisdiction. So sometimes four levels in state court.

5

There are as many Federal systems as there are Federal government. So 1.

There are as many State systems as there are state governments. So 50. Plus PR, DC, etc. Call it 55 total.

In the states that use counties (not all of them do) there are as many county systems as there are counties. So 3300-ish.

In the states that use cities or towns (which are often not the same thing) (not all of them do) there are as many city or town systems as there are cities and towns counties. So 50,000 -ish.

There are some broad generalizations that are true in many areas. The OP contains a few common examples. But there is literally nothing that can be said to be true about all of them.

6

ADDING PRE-EMPTIVELY: I just re-read the OP and had originally thought it was from a non-US person, but now it seems to me that the OP is an American asking for clarification. Some of the below is really aimed at non-USians but rather than rewrite, let it stand as hopefully of some use. IANAL. IANA cop.

I feel fairly sure any respectably sized American city, whether in Colorado or not, has the ability to make its own laws (as long as these don’t conflict with state and federal law, though sometimes they do) and that these cities would have their own District Attorneys–for the non-USA readers, a District Attorney is the chief government prosecutor at a given level, which could be city, state, or even federal. The official name at the federal level is US Attorney for ___ District, meaning for a given area.

For example, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York State is one of the most powerful lawyers in the country, because the Southern District includes Manhattan, seat of financial power in the United States.

There are quibbles caveats and variations which I’m sure the real attorneys here can get into, but that’s the broad strokes.

As far as law enforcement, you’ll have city or local police, or sheriffs in “unincorporated” areas, which aren’t necessarily rural, and sometimes well-developed but smaller cities will contract with the county sheriff to provide law enforcement rather than provide their own police force. Many (most? all?) US states also have “state police,” who intervene in larger cases due to their resources, and who in some states also patrol large highways. Some states also have in addition a “Bureau of Investigation,” which is basically a unit that takes on really big cases like a multi-jurisditction serial killer, or state-level corruption.

At the federal level there are multiple enforcement agencies, but they don’t supersede each other necessarily–they sometimes cooperate, sometimes compete. The FBI is the biggest, with the widest reach, and perhaps the best; its remit only covers federal crimes though it often assists state or local agencies in difficult cases. Then you have assorted other specialized agencies like Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who are the guys who arrest and deport undocumented immigrants; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, a bizarre omnibus that investigates crimes relating to those three subjects; the Drug Enforcement Agency, which covers illegal drugs; and other agencies I’m not thinking of right now.

7

This must be state specific if true: New York cities have District Attorneys. I would have thought that cities *without *a prosecutor are rare. They serve to enforce city laws, which here in New York can be entirely different than county laws.

Although the OP is correct that courts mostly can be sorted out in three levels, numerous specialized courts exist that are sometimes hard to classify. The federal trial courts include the District Courts and The United States Court of International Trade, the United States Court of Federal Claims, and the United States Tax Court.

State court systems include Family Courts, Surrogate’s Courts, Courts of Claims, Drug Courts, Domestic Violence Courts and on and on.

8

Then there are postal inspectors and railroad police (at least there used to be), both gun-toting agencies with considerable powers. I don’t know if they had prosecutors, though.

Dennis

9

And don’t forget the Marshal Service. They exist at both the Federal and State level.
Around here we have constables-and Justices of the Peace.

10

Is that true? New York City, for example, does not have a district attorney. Rather, the five constituent counties all have their own county district attorney. A quick google search tells me that Buffalo is served by the Eerie County District Attorney and that Albany is in Albany County. Do any New York cities have district attorneys?

Here in Virginia, we have city prosecutors, but that’s because Virginia cities are independent entities that are not part of the county that, often, surrounds them.

11

Those aren’t different layers. Those are courts with more narrow scope but on the same “layer.” In my state that would all be on the county level. And some of those are civil courts so there is no prosecution at all.

Mostly prosecution happens at the lowest level. That’s where questions of fact are answered. Other levels of courts are appellate where questions of law are answered.
In my state there are basically three levels of prosecution. The US Attorney’s office handles all federal prosecutions. Municipal court prosecutors handle all non-indictable crimes, crimes that have been reduced at the county level and sent back down, and traffic violations. County court handled all indictable. County Superior Court handles adult crimes. Juvenile court if part of County Family Court which also can handle domestic violence as well as civil matters. We don’t have elected prosecutors so the county prosecutors all answer to the state Attorney General.

12

That is all in turn a reflection of how the internal organization below the level of state or territory is not fixed – there’s virtually 56 different models of internal government. Some states have what I’ll call “Charter Cities” which have a level of reserved autonomy, but in most other states every local entity is a mere administrative subdivision, a dependency of the state that only has such devolved jurisdiction as the legislature granteth or taketh away (and in any case, states retain plenary legislative power). As mentioned there’s places where an incorporated city is independent from any county, and places like Florida or Californa where you can incorporate neighborhoods while receiving virtually all services still from the county. In PR and I believe in CT there is no actual county governments, you step down straight from “state” to municipal.

In any case, administrative subdivisions have a level of devolved law enforcement authority, so there will be town/city police forces of diferring levels of competences to enact that authority. But once you get to the levels of bureau of investigation, revenue police, park rangers/fish&hunting enforcement, that is usually state-run, not local. Similarly, public entities with a large security footprint but very specialized scope, or else that encompass activity beyond the limits of one city/county/state may then have their own police forces e.g. Capitol Police; Ports Authority of NY and NJ Police; Amtrak Railroad Police).

Virtually all if not all states and territories today have their judiciary systems constitutionally arranged as unified systems, where the rules and office requirements are uniform anywhere in the state. So in most cases County Courts are really legally part of the general trial court, not a part of the county government.

And then of course there is the varying ways in which in different states the judges and prosecutors (and sherriffs/police chiefs) may be variously political appointees, elected officials, or career personnel depending on jurisdiction and rank.

13

The bolded word should be dropped.

Not all states have marshals, although Ohio does. The Federal ones are in the Marshals Service: United States Marshals Service - Wikipedia

Ohio has prosecutors at the city or town level (who handle misdemeanors, jailable and otherwise), and at the county level (felonies, up to and including capital cases). Municipalities have limited law-making power and are able to pass ordinances that apply only within the municipality; they may not conflict with state or Federal law. Some small cities and towns are, for budgetary reasons and because there just aren’t that many cases, combined by the state legislature into single municipal court districts. An example: Parma Municipal Court - City of Parma. Often the prosecutors in such courts serve part-time, and the court is only in session a few days a week.

The Attorney General of Ohio has a very limited set of criminal cases he handles (see here: Criminal Justice - Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost). It has been suggested that state law be changed to have him handle all cases involving police shootings, so that local prosecutors aren’t put in the position of prosecuting bad cops while still needing the cooperation of those officers’ partners in other cases.

On the Federal level, Ohio is split into two districts, Northern and Southern. There is a U.S. Attorney in each who, with his or her large staff, handles all criminal and civil cases involving Uncle Sam in each half of the state. Here’s more on U.S. Attorneys: United States Attorney - Wikipedia

14

Nuts. You’re right and I’m wrong. Sorry for any confusion.

15

I’ll just mention that, apart from the occasional oddity of an independent counsel, everyone at the DOJ answers to the U.S. Attorney General, and the DOJ is the only federal criminal authority (some other agencies can bring their own civil cases, but they refer criminal prosecutions to the DOJ), so there is effectively only one federal criminal prosecutor.

16

All U.S. government cases on appeal must go through the Solicitor General, the top appellate lawyer, too. He or she is #3 at the Justice Department and answers directly to the Attorney General.

17

There are no more independent counsels, so the AG’s authority over federal criminal prosecution is absolute.