James E. O'Neil is an American lawyer and politician who served as Attorney General of Rhode Island from 1987 to 1993. [1] [2] Prior to his election as Attorney General, he worked as a federal prosecutor. [3] In 2023, he was inducted into the Rhode Island Criminal Justice Hall of Fame. [4]
The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) is the office or official charged with the prosecution of criminal offences in several criminal jurisdictions around the world. The title is used mainly in jurisdictions that are or have been members of the Commonwealth of Nations.
In the United States, a special counsel is a lawyer appointed to investigate, and potentially prosecute, a particular case of suspected wrongdoing for which a conflict of interest exists for the usual prosecuting authority. Other jurisdictions have similar systems. For example, the investigation of an allegation against a sitting president or attorney general might be handled by a special prosecutor rather than by an ordinary prosecutor who would otherwise be in the position of investigating his or her own superior. Special prosecutors also have handled investigations into those connected to the government but not in a position of direct authority over the Justice Department's prosecutors, such as cabinet secretaries or election campaigns.
A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the adversarial system, which is adopted in common law, or inquisitorial system, which is adopted in civil law. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the case in a criminal trial against the defendant, an individual accused of breaking the law. Typically, the prosecutor represents the state or the government in the case brought against the accused person.
United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal criminal prosecutor in their judicial district and represents the U.S. federal government in civil litigation in federal and state court within their geographic jurisdiction. U.S. attorneys must be nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate, after which they serve four-year terms.
The Boston University School of Law is the law school of Boston University, a private research university in Boston. Established in 1872, it is the third-oldest law school in New England, after Harvard Law School and Yale Law School. Approximately 630 students are enrolled in the full-time J.D. degree program and about 350 in the school's five LLM degree programs. BU Law was one of the first law schools in the country to admit students to study law regardless of race or gender.
Sheldon Whitehouse is an American lawyer and politician serving as the junior United States senator from Rhode Island since 2007. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the United States Attorney for the District of Rhode Island from 1993 to 1998 and as the 71st attorney general of Rhode Island from 1999 to 2003.
Joseph Harry Fowler Connick Sr. was an American attorney who served as the district attorney of Orleans Parish, Louisiana, from 1973 to 2003. His son, Harry Connick Jr., is an American musician and actor.
Joseph Berry Keenan was an American lawyer best known for serving as Chief Prosecutor for the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. He previously served as Assistant Attorney General in the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Patrick C. Lynch is an American lawyer who served as Rhode Island's 72nd Attorney General. He oversaw the investigation and prosecution of the second-deadliest fire in Rhode Island history, the Station Nightclub Fire, and also sued former lead paint manufacturers for cleanup costs associated with their old products. He won reelection in 2006, and attempted unsuccessfully to run for governor of Rhode Island in 2010, where he dropped out before the Democratic Primary.
The Office of Special Counsel was an office of the United States Department of Justice established by provisions in the Ethics in Government Act that expired in 1999. The provisions were replaced by Department of Justice regulation 28 CFR Part 600, which created the successor office of special counsel. The current regulations were drafted by former acting solicitor general Neal Katyal.
Robert James "Bob" Conrad Jr. is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina. He served as chief judge from 2006 to 2013 and was a former nominee to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit to take the place of the retired James Dickson Phillips Jr. He previously served as a member of the executive committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States from 2016 to 2020.
John Henry Durham is an American lawyer who served as the United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut from 2018 to 2021. By April 2019, the Trump administration assigned him to investigate the origins of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections, and in October 2020 he was appointed special counsel for the Department of Justice on that matter.
The Oklahoma District Attorneys Council is an agency of the state of Oklahoma that provides professional organization for the education, training and coordination of technical efforts of all Oklahoma state prosecutors and to maintain and improve prosecutor efficiency and effectiveness in enforcing the laws of the state. The Council distinguishes itself from the District Attorneys Association, a private organization, in order to lobby the legislature, though it is composed of the same members.
Julius Cooley Michaelson served as Rhode Island Attorney General from 1975 to 1979 and was the Democratic U.S. Senate nominee in 1982 against Republican John Chafee.
Jeffrey B. Pine served as Attorney General of Rhode Island from 1993-1999. Since 1999 he has been in private practice as a trial lawyer in both criminal and civil litigation.
Herbert F. DeSimone was an American lawyer and politician from Rhode Island. He served as the 64th Attorney General of Rhode Island and as President Nixon's Assistant Secretary of Transportation for the Environment and Urban System.
Peter Franz Neronha is an American lawyer and politician from Jamestown, Rhode Island who currently serves as the attorney general of Rhode Island. He previously served as the United States attorney for the District of Rhode Island under President Barack Obama from September 16, 2009 until March 10, 2017, after which he ran successfully as a Democrat for the office of Attorney General of Rhode Island in the 2018 elections.
Aaron L. Weisman is an American attorney who served as the United States Attorney for the District of Rhode Island from 2019 to 2021.
The United States Justice Department investigation into attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election began in early 2021 with investigations and prosecutions of hundreds of individuals who participated in the January 6, 2021 attack on the United States Capitol. By early 2022, the investigation had expanded to examine Donald Trump's inner circle, with the Justice Department impaneling several federal grand juries to investigate the attempts to overturn the election. Later in 2022, a special counsel was appointed. On August 1, 2023, Trump was indicted. The indictment also describes six alleged co-conspirators.