Posted on 03/12/2012 4:12:39 PM PDT by MetaThought
More than 90 percent of criminal cases are never tried before a jury.
AFTER years as a civil rights lawyer, I rarely find myself speechless. But some questions a woman I know posed during a phone conversation one recent evening gave me pause: “What would happen if we organized thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of people charged with crimes to refuse to play the game, to refuse to plea out? What if they all insisted on their Sixth Amendment right to trial? Couldn’t we bring the whole system to a halt just like that?” ...
I was stunned by Susan’s question about plea bargains because she — of all people — knows the risks involved in forcing prosecutors to make cases against people who have been charged with crimes. Could she be serious about organizing people, on a large scale, to refuse to plea-bargain when charged with a crime?
“Yes, I’m serious,” she flatly replied. ...
But in this era of mass incarceration — when our nation’s prison population has quintupled in a few decades partly as a result of the war on drugs and the “get tough” movement — these rights are, for the overwhelming majority of people hauled into courtrooms across America, theoretical. More than 90 percent of criminal cases are never tried before a jury. Most people charged with crimes forfeit their constitutional rights and plead guilty.
“The truth is that government officials have deliberately engineered the system to assure that the jury trial system established by the Constitution is seldom used,” said Timothy Lynch, director of the criminal justice project at the libertarian Cato Institute. In other words: the system is rigged.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
You think it’s tearing down the country by telling people to insist on their constitutional right to a trial by jury? Interesting.
Regards,
GtG
Exactly
Here in polkcounty even the innocent are petrified to not plea. They threaten to throw the book at you
At 830 am Bartow court house haa people two deep wrapping around the building..
AFAIK, the police use this strategy frequently, to get petty drug dealers to finger their suppliers. Criminals, of course, have their own sanctions against snitching.
The problem with this type of plea (whereby someone else is fingered), is the incentive it provides for false accusations.
As a staunch conservative I must disagree. I live in the most corrupt county in florida. The absolutely do not cease and desist even when they have no basis for prosecution. I am desperately trying to get out.
This has more to do with the massive amount of activities that are illegal in today's over regulated society. If a grown man or woman wants to ingest a intoxicating substance, what right does a supposed Free Society have against that? If a person wants to build a building on his own property, what right does the EPA have to tell them, NO this is a wet land.
Actually, this *has* happened! It took a minimal number of those accused to drag the system into an dysfunctional torpor.
It started with a kook movement, I believe “sovereign citizens”, or someone like that. They knew that the government would eventually haul dozens of them into court, and put them in prison, so they agreed that not only would they demand trials, but they would also submit endless, frivolous motions written in an unintelligible way, to drag out each of their court hearings for years.
Within a few months, trial dates years in the future were being set, because the system could not handle even a few dozen such cases.
Importantly, for those of you who think that this is the sort of thing imbeciles like OWS would do, you are mistaken. This is a *reaction* to some pretty horrible abuses of the legal system by the government.
For example, forcing plea bargains on innocent people by threatening them with dire consequences if they are convicted by a jury. “Six months or life, your choice.”
Another thing, behind the scenes, is intentionally giving public defenders enormous workloads, so they cannot adequately defend their clients. Is a system fair that has 12 assistant prosecutors but only 3 public defenders?
Prosecutors and judges also demand “elocution”, confessions of guilt, under threat of severe sentences. This kills dead any chances for appeal, or to win a judgment for false prosecution.
Those who are convicted *cannot* refuse parole or probation so they may end their sentence as free persons. Instead they are usually forced into semi-slavery, in which unless they obey demands of their overseer, they can get sentences *beyond* their original sentence. In some cases, these probation officers are deeply corrupt, either forcing their charges back into a life of crime, or creating rules impossible to oblige, so they are sent back to prison.
Some judges can tell when a jury is likely to acquit, so they encourage some blatant act by the prosecutor so they can declare a mistrial, so the prosecutor can have a “do-over”. Likewise a judge has wide latitude to decide that even if a jury is 11-1 for acquittal, that the case can be retried.
So don’t feel bad if somebody eventually throws a monkey wrench into the machine. Perhaps some good will come of it. Or at least something better than what we have to endure now.
“You enter the court a pig. You exit as sausage.”
If a policeman comes to the door and asks if he can ask some questions, say “NO, I do not talk to the police!”
If the police stop or detain you, ask ‘Am I under Arrest?” if they say ‘NO’; say ‘than I assume that I am free to go” If they say “NO’ Tell them ‘Arrest me, or let me go”
if arrested SAYNOTHING AND ASK FOR AN ATTORNEY!
If you DO commit a crime: Do it yourself, don't tell anybody, EVER! and always Deny, deny, deny,
No get me a lawyer.
Its petty, mean and vindictive I guess, oh well.
This would be a classic case of the “Prisoners Dilemma “.....
Judges will react by stiffening bail requirements and making the protestors wait out the backlog in county jail.
Go the jury trial route. It is your right. I hope you are paying for the ride and not the taxpayer
True criminals commit malum in se crimes, things like murder, rape and robbery that are evil in and of themselves.
Nowadays a large portion of crimes are malum prohibitum crimes, things that are illegal not because they are immoral, but because there is a law against them.
If everybody quit paying income taxes and demanded a jury trial, the federal government would go belly-up in a year.
In the context of the article and your response that is exactly what I took away from your post. If you choose to make your thoughts more lucid perhaps we can gain some real insight into your true thinking.
Not sure I understand your “even the innocent are petrified to not plea” statement.
I don't see a lot of local law abiding citizens being caught up in trumped up false charges around here.
I do notice a breathtaking number of out of area criminals finding out Polk County isn't quite the dumb hick town they thought it was, when they decided to set up operations....
Do you also live in Polk County or perhaps the state of Louisiana?
Yeah, I know that's the full statement of the "minimax" problem. Either suspect does best if they don't snitch first, but they can't trust each other or communicate, so that isn't their best choice.
Still, the situation here with an overcharged sentence, an overcharging but overburdened attorney, and a suspect in the middle is somewhat reminiscent of the classic problem. Besides, I got in a pun with "prisoner's dilemma," didn't I?
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