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Vermont attorney general outlines office role, limits and offers homicide help amid court backlog
Summary
Attorney General Clark described the statewide office's prosecutorial priorities, staffing, and how the office coordinates with elected state's attorneys — saying the AG’s office prioritizes violent felonies and offers to assist on homicides while most criminal caseloads remain with county prosecutors.
Attorney General Clark told the Judiciary committee the attorney general’s office focuses its prosecutorial resources on the most violent crimes, offers assistance to county state's attorneys on homicide cases and operates a small criminal unit that handles a disproportionate share of the state’s most serious felony prosecutions.
Clark said the office’s criminal division is small and specialized and that the attorney general’s statutory charge to “represent the state” has been interpreted to include homicides. “We have 14 independent county prosecutors who are elected in their counties and serve four year terms. In addition, we have a statewide attorney general who has concurrent jurisdiction,” Clark said. “There is one charge in particular that is explicitly named in the statute … it is homicide.”
The nut graf: Clark emphasized that Vermont’s prosecution system is intentionally divided and collaborative: county state's attorneys handle the bulk…
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