prosecution
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 265 U.S. 224 - Salinger v. Loisel · 1924Most cited · 955 citing opinions
criminal venue, Judicial Code §53
the real purpose of the provision, that which best comports with its terms when taken in the light of the circumstances in which it was enacted, is to require, where a district contains more than one division, that the trial be had in the division where the offense was committed, unless the accused consents to be tried in another.
How the Supreme Court has restated “prosecution”
Each Supreme Court definition of “prosecution,” sized by how often later courts cited it. “Change” is measured by wording overlap with earlier definitions — a rough signal, not a semantic judgment.
How often courts cite the cases defining “prosecution”
Court decisions citing the 3 opinions that defined “prosecution” — 1,662 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 3 definitions, chronological · 1805–1931
- ORIGINAL
It is declared, that 'no person shall be prosecuted, tried or punished,' words which show an intention, not merely to limit any particular form of action, but to limit any prosecution whatever.
under statute of limitations
an action to recover a penalty for an act declared to be a crime is, in its nature, a punitive proceeding, although it take the form of a civil action; and the word 'prosecution' is not inapt to describe such an action