In United Statescriminal procedure terminology, aprocess crime is anoffense against thejudicial process.[1] These crimes includefailure to appear,false statements,obstruction of justice,contempt of court andperjury.
Process crimes are sometimes a basis for a "pretextual prosecution", in which prosecutors bring process crime charges against a defendant in order to punish them for another crime for which a conviction is more difficult to obtain.
Process crimes are the offenses that "interfere with the procedures and administration of justice".[2] They are prosecuted because they are considered to harm the public interest in the functioning and integrity of the judicial system.[2]
There is a broad range of process crimes, covered in the U.S. by a variety of federal and state laws. The five "archetypal" process charges arefailure to appear,false statements,obstruction of justice,contempt of court andperjury.[3] Persons who do not cooperate with anarrest may be charged with such process crimes asresisting arrest, flight to elude arrest orbattery on police officers.[4]
In U.S. legal literature, prosecutions for process crimes are covered largely as a phenomenon of federal criminal law.[5] But they are also frequently prosecuted instate courts.[6]
Process crimes lend themselves to being prosecuted regardless of the actual harm done to the furtherance of justice.[7] They are therefore frequently a basis for "pretextual prosecutions", a prosecutorial tactic in which "prosecutors target defendants based on suspicion of one crime but prosecute them for another".[8] The classic example is the pretextual prosecution of the gangsterAl Capone fortax evasion rather than for his many other crimes in 1931.[9]
To prosecutors, process crimes are particularly suitable for such purposes because they "carry a strong veneer of legitimacy" (i.e., most people agree that lying in court should be punishable), because they carry significant penalties, and because the prosecution is able to help produce these crimes. For instance, prosecutors can set up situations such asgrand jury hearings ordiscovery requests in which process crimes – lies and omissions – tend to frequently occur.[9] Process crimes also tend to be easier to prove than other crimes, and they often do not present astatute of limitations problem because they can arise late in the investigation of another crime that is more difficult to prove.[9]
Examples in which process crimes are used for pretextual prosecutions include using "dissuading a witness" charges to sanctiondomestic abusers, or contempt charges for violating court orders to stay away from a place or person to punish suspected street criminals.[10] On occasion, prosecutors may even go beyond a pretextual prosecution (through which they seek to sanction a real, if perhaps unprovable, offense) and use process crime charges merely to punish a defendant for their perceived obstinacy or insubordination.[11]