Aaron J. Thorpe v. United States

In our constitutional system of separated powers, Article II vests the Executive Branch with the plenary authority to initiate and terminate criminal prosecutions. Consistent with that power, Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 48(a) authorizes federal prosecutors to dismiss criminal charges with leave of the district court. Rule 48(a) contains no language expressly limiting its application to convictions that have not yet become final. Accordingly, this Court has permitted post-conviction application of the rule while direct appeal was pending. In this case the court below read a temporal restriction into Rule 48(a), prohibiting its use by prosecutors to dismiss charges once a conviction becomes final. Such a prohibition will preclude the government from dismissing a conviction after direct appeal, even when prosecutors determine that the remedy is just and appropriate under the circumstances of the particular case. Thus, the question presented is: Whether Article II of the U.S. Constitution and this Court’s precedents interpreting Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 48(a) authorize federal prosecutors to dismiss criminal charges after a conviction has become final.