Mr. Altman and the prosecution were making their final presentations to a jury before it considers the charges against Mr. Ravi, which include invasion of privacy, bias intimidation, and trying to cover up his actions by tampering with evidence and a witness.
Assisted suicide remains a criminal offence in England and Wales, punishable by up to 14 years in prison, but individual decisions on prosecution are made depending on the circumstances in each case.
The challenge for the prosecution was made clear on Wednesday, when an effective cross-examination of a government witness highlighted how the officer, Gilberto Valle, had said in one of his bizarre online chat discussions that his killing and eating of women was all "in my imagination".
Calling on the Security Council to impose a global prohibition on arms sales, he added: "The facade of her prosecution is made more monstrous because its real objective is to sever her bond with the people for whom she is a beacon of hope and resistance".
In part, Comey explained, the recommendation against prosecution was made because an indictment would have taken investigators into uncharted legal waters.
It added that the decisions over whether to bring prosecutions were made by the Crown Prosecution Service.
I pushed hard to clear out children's service managers who'd looked the other way and repeatedly challenged the chief constable of Greater Manchester Police until more prosecutions were made.
In the same period, it said that 13 prosecutions were made against waste offenders.
Yet despite reports of ominous sounding letters, no prosecutions were made.
"They thought the prosecution was making common cause with the tabloids.
