Terms Used In Maryland Code, STATE GOVERNMENT 6-604

  • Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
  • Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
  • state: means :

    (1) a state, possession, territory, or commonwealth of the United States; or

    (2) the District of Columbia. See
(a) (1) Except as provided in subsection (b) of this section, if the Attorney General determines that an investigation conducted under § 6-602 of this subtitle provides sufficient grounds for the prosecution of a criminal offense discovered in the course of the investigation, the Attorney General shall have exclusive authority to prosecute the offense.

(2) The Attorney General, in the Attorney General’s discretion, may prosecute a police-involved incident not otherwise within the investigative jurisdiction of the Division under § 6-602(c) of this subtitle if the incident is referred by a State‘s Attorney to the Attorney General for prosecution.

(b) A State’s Attorney may prosecute a criminal offense described in subsection (a)(1) of this section only if the Attorney General requests that the State’s Attorney prosecute the offense.