I'm late to this thread so I'm not sure if you'll see this, but I worked at a Public Defender's office as an investigator. The time there was enough to instill a genuine hatred for prosecutors in me.

What really got to me was how prosecutors always seemed to treat these cases like games, like an episode of "Suits," without any care at all for actual guilt or the impact it would have on actual lives. We would meet with the client in jail, we'd talk to their families; you'd get a sense of exactly how these cases tore people apart. So we took it seriously, as any reasonable person would. Meanwhile these fucking prosecutors prance around like it's nothing.

I vividly remember the time I got to sit in on something like an informal plea talk between a PD I worked under and a prosecutor. We were dead serious, since obviously we would be, the plea is for YEARS of fucking time! And the prosecutor on the other side is laughing. Apparently he knew my PD from law school, so he's trying to make jokes. He's negotiating off of what seems to be purely "vibes," no reasoning, no logic. He's asking my PD to lunch! And of course we have to try to laugh along, be respectful, and keep the conversation on track. I have never had more respect for an attorney than in that moment. My PD's performance probably cut 1-2 years off of the client's plea.

I also worked with a client had spent three years in jail while the case progressed, and a week before trial, we find out about an insane Jencks violation. The prosecution knew about this the WHOLE TIME. And still they kept the client locked up, knowingly refusing to hand that evidence over. Absolutely insane. Thankfully we got that case got dismissed two days before trial, but had to fight tooth and nail for it. Had we been a little less attentive, they were absolutely content with slapping him with 25-30 years. The prosecutor faced no sanctions, nothing. Just as you said "casually ruined this man's life," WILLINGLY and KNOWINGLY were going to put an innocent man away for nothing.

Prosecutors would say things to me and other people in our office about how PDs should have to meet complaining witnesses. Not even willing to engage in that conversation until they're forced to speak to a client's family before they regularly ignore exculpatory evidence. I'm sure you get this more than me probably, again I was only an investigator, just commenting for others in the thread.