REMINDER -- I'll be speaking at a fundraising dinner for the Skagit County Republican Party on Saturday, July 16th, 6pm at the Avalon Golf Links in Burlington.
The other speakers are Attorney General Rob McKenna and KVI's Kirby Wilbur.
I hope to meet some of my Skagit County readers there! Please RSVP by July 5th. Full details here
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at July 05, 2005 12:00 AM | Email ThisAsk McKenna claims he cannot initiate prosecutions on his own authority, especially in light of:
"RCW 43.10.030(2) Institute and prosecute all actions and proceedings for, or for the use of the state, which may be necessary in the execution of the duties of any state officer;"
He is a state officer and it is his oath to uphold the laws and constitution of the state of Washington. Furthemore, the Washington Constitution and RCWs specifically incorporate the common law into the law of the state. Under the common law, he has a duty to initiate criminal prosecutions of which he becomes aware; especially serious felonies.
It is also a maxim of law, that where there is a duty, all the power and authority required to carry out that duty is presumed.
This whole garbage about only being authorized to initiate prosecutions upon the request of the gov, or a county Prosecutor is garbage; and he knows it.
McKenna is either ignorant of the law, or he is being dishonest.
Don
RCW 36.27.020(3) gives the attorney general "supervisory control and direction" over all the county prosecuting attorneys:
(3) Appear for and represent the state, county, and all school districts subject to the supervisory control and direction of the attorney general in all criminal and civil proceedings in which the state or the county or any school district in the county may be a party;
http://www.leg.wa.gov/RCW/index.cfm?section=36.27.020&fuseaction=section
This gives McKenna much more power over criminal prosecutions than anything you can possibly come up with out of Chapter 43.10 RCW. A lot of the provisions of Chapter 43.10 RCW require the attorney general to have approval of the county prosecuting attorney in order to act in a criminal case.
But RCW 36.27.020(3) gives the attorney general to power to control and direct a county prosecuting attorney in the supervisory manner. Not only can McKenna force a county prosecuting attorney to allow the attorney general's office to act in a particular criminal prosecution, but McKenna can also direct the actions to be taken by a county prosecuting attorney in a given case as well.
No attorney general, Democrat or Republican, has exercised this authority in decades, however.