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").
Oberlin is a city in Decatur County, Kansas, United States. The population was 1,994 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Decatur County. On September 30, 1878, Northern Cheyenne fleeing from Indian Territory to their homes in the north, the Northern Cheyenne Exodus, attacked homesteaders near Oberlin, then a tiny hamlet. The Last Indian Raid in Kansas room in the Decatur County Museum and a monument in the town cemetery near the graves of the victims commemorate those depredations.