The decision by one of the courtroom professionals to charge, or not to charge, a person with an offense is called:

• A. Judicial discretion
• B. Prosecutorial discretion
• C. Prosecutor's waiver
• D. Grand jury discretion

Answer: (B)

Prosecutorial discretion is the authority to decide whether to file criminal charges and what those charges will be. After an investigation, the prosecutor weighs the evidence, considers whether there is probable cause and a reasonable chance of conviction, and factors in the seriousness of the offense, public interest, and available resources. Based on this assessment, the prosecutor decides to press charges, drop them, or negotiate a plea. In some jurisdictions a grand jury may determine indictment, but the formal charging decision in most cases rests with the prosecutor. The other terms don’t capture this primary role: judicial discretion is the judge’s authority in court, and “prosecutor’s waiver” isn’t the standard label for this decision.