I don't think that the prosecuters can say anything that is patently false. But they sure can engage in a little spin now and then, to make sure someone doesn't arrive in court as a saint...
There have been a couple of very high profile cases that were probably spun by the defense to allow them to go free. (OJ, and few others come to mind)
But the real problem in a high profile case is that often they are overcharged because someone is making a political statement.
The other problem is the tendancy to overcharge a case to get a perp to plead guilty to what they really were guilty of. (Louise Woodward comes to mind in that). Its actually gotten so bad that I am starting to think that maybe plea bargains aren't such a good idea... I am aware of the backlog of cases so I don't have an easy solution however...
Cheers
Wino
PS. It was a bleedin shame we didn't have a few hours over a few pints. Maybe next time... You could come to the coming NY bash in April...