In a criminal case, the state, through a prosecutor, initiates the suit, while in a civil case the victim brings the suit. Persons convicted of a crime may be incarcerated, fined, or both. Criminal defense attorneys represent clients who have been accused of committing a crime, and defend their rights at each stage of a misdemeanor or felony case -- from an arrest to an appeal after conviction. Criminal defense attorneys may be hired privately or provided by the government (called "public defenders").
West Point is a city in Harris and Troup Counties in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 3,382. The Harris County portion of West Point is part of the Columbus, Georgia-Alabama Metropolitan Statistical Area, while the Troup County portion is part of the LaGrange Micropolitan Statistical Area. Its first name was Franklin (there is now another Franklin, Georgia). The town's current name comes from being near the westernmost point on the Chattahoochee River, where its southwestward flow from the mountains and by Atlanta quickly turns toward the south-southeast to form the state line with Alabama. Lake West Point was created by the Army Corps of Engineers at this point for flood control, just upstream from the town, which flooded when the dam nearly overflowed in late spring of 2003. Excessive thunderstorm rains upstream in the Atlanta metro area the day before, combined with the same situation locally that day, in addition to allegedly poor forecasting of lake levels and inflow, would have exceeded the capacity of the lake and topped the dam had the emergency release not been made. While this avoided an outright dambreak and catastrophic failure, the town flooded more so than any time since the dam had been built. Still, the town was spared a much worse fate, as flooding would have been seriously worse without the dam. The Atlanta & LaGrange Railroad was renamed the Atlanta & West Point Railroad for the town, and the town of East Point was named so for being at the opposite end of the line near Atlanta.