One of the most important aspects of America's criminal justice system for people to understand is that it is distributed among 50 states, over 3,000 counties, over 20,000 cities, and the federal government. In Texas alone there are 240 counties, 240 district attorneys, and over 400 felony courts. There are variables that accrue to all of them. For one, Texas juries decide punishment while in some other states judges decide punishment; federal judges always decide punishment (except death penalty punishment). While federal prosecutors are required to obtain an indictment before prosecuting a felony, only 38 states must do the same. The list of differences goes on.