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").
Pitcairn is a borough in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, fifteen miles (twenty-four kilometers) east of Pittsburgh. Early in the 20th century, it was the site of large railroad yards and shops that employed nearly ten thousand men. In 1900, 2,601 people lived there. In 1910, 4,975 lived there, and in 1940, Pitcairn was home to 6,310 people. The population was 3,689 at the 2000 census. Pitcairn operates its own power distribution system and municipally owned cable television system. Pitcairn was the birthplace of bandleader Ted Weems and of musical instrument maker Carl Thompson, as well as early NFL football player Harry Robb. In 1971 the first Fox's Pizza Den was opened on Broadway Blvd. in Pitcairn. It remains open to this day. Pitcairn Yard, which opened in 1892 and was for many decades a major switching yard of the Pennsylvania Railroad, later the Penn Central Railroad and Conrail, is now, since the 1990s, an intermodal freight transport yard for the Norfolk Southern Railway, where containers are taken off trains and transferred to trucks for delivery, or from trucks to trains.