I know a man at my church who, years ago, used to be a drug addict and dealer. He spent his time in jail and somewhere along the way, during his last time in jail I think, got saved and reformed his life.
So, he was starting a business, running meetings for recovering addicts, and in general had reformed himself into an upstanding citizen.
One day he gets called in for questioning. It’s been years since he’s been part of the drug scene so doesn’t really think anything of it. He goes without a lawyer.
They ask him questions which amount to “Do you know this person? Have you met that person?” He tells them he’d ran across them at some point in the past.
Then he gets charged for being in criminal conspiracy for no other reason than he had casually met certain people at some point in the past. He’s convicted.
They offer a plea deal with a catch: go undercover for us. He points out that it’s been years since he’s been in the scene, he has no contacts anymore so no way to infiltrate anything, and he’d rather go to jail anyways than even do so much as pretend to be a part of that lifestyle.
Before sentencing, many people write letters of reference for him. I have no printer and for some moronic reason don’t think of taking a jump drive to a print shop so I edit my rough draft on PC and then write the final copy by hand.
I point out his good works in helping others, especially addicts, and that his role is “providing an example that real personal reform is both possible and worthwhile”. My final sentence is “Based on my observations of 's character and his impact on others in our group: if he is removed out of society then it is my expectation that other people will suffer as a result and the community at large will be harmed.”
The judge reads all the letters. But due to minimum sentencing guidelines a year in jail is mandated. The judge apologizes before passing sentence.
Now, I don’t know who the prosecutor was by name but I do know what he/she/they got out of this: they broke up a drug ring! A criminal conspiracy foiled! They’re tough on crime!
So, that would be Exhibit A of a prosecutor who completely and totally followed the law yet was the prime instigator of a great injustice.
Exhibit B would be a former prosecutor who later became an attorney. A friend of mine was talking to the former prosecutor about his case history and the attorney says that he should go after his case’s prosecutor for malicious prosecution (I forget the exact terms but something to that effect). My friend then looks at that the attorney and reminds him, “You were the prosecutor for that case!”