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 ...
where do i begin.
2006 daughter bathing one grand child while other napped in family room. my young son failed to completely close front door. two yr old grandaughter got outside. police called. police offer did not arrest her. hrs dcf came out and interviewed neighbors etc. found NO case For child neglect. My daughter had no criminal record. Had a job and was attending college. 8 months later i was awaken by police who handcuffed my daughter from her bedroom ( while in sponge bob slippers). wouldnt let me bail her out. apparently no bail on this charge until you appear in front of judge. when bailed out she was banned from coming home. i had to care for grandkids. 3000.00 later for attorney along with 22 notarized character letters we were told if we fought it they Would pursue max charge of feloney. prison time for year or more we were told. guess what? she plead to lesser defense. her life was ruined as far as getting law enforcement job which is what she wanted.
if these children where in danger why did officer on site and dcf not pursue. why wait over 8 months to arrest a mother in the middle of yhe night leaving her children behind? this is case 1. I will send the next in ainute.
Might be more useful to start widely informing the general public about the concept of “jury nullification” actually.
Funny the trial lawyer didn’t mention that.
/s
case 2. i am a single parent. 25 yr old son and 17 year old son get into shoving match. older son calls police to teach him a lesson. officer arrives younger son ran off. the report goes to state attorney for review. they charge younger son with aggravated battery. a felony. older son calls then writes then calls then writes..state attorney explaining that this was blown out of proportion. we kept being dragged to court over and over w plea offers. we said hell no this time we are going to trial. the day of jury selection and again 3000 dollars for attorney fees charges were finally dropped. this is case 2. case 3 will be coming shortly
What would happen if everyone demanded a trial? Most would sit in jail for several years before seeing a courtroom for a trial.
Alinsky, anyone?
a few months back my adopted son atended a part. he is 28. everyone was drinking beer. he fell asleep. a neighbor attending the party left and promptly hit, actually smashed, into a light pole around the corner. all from party run out to see what happened. neighbor kid runs from scene. my sleeping son awakes to discover everyone gone and goes out and sees everyone in street. police show up. by the time i get there i am adbised ny officer thay yhry are arresting my son. i asked the officer why they were not looking for the owner of the truck. he told me, and i quote, SOMEBODYS going to jail tonigjt and yhe owner of the truck aint here. really!???? the nexy day yhe kid who hit the pole admitted he was driving. guess what?
the charged him and my son. how can this be? charging two people for driving the same truck into the same light pole?
oh now they dropped that one and said he “tried to move the vehicle” really?? OMG.
again i said hell no we go to trial.
he gets public defender. he picks out a jury.
night begore trial he tells me they charged him with two counts of something..... and guess what??? there is going to be two trials. two separate jury trials!!!!!!!
we get to court. he had seven witnesses to testify it wasnt him. guess what the prosecutor had? nada. no witnesses no officer. we were told both charges were being dropped. we all burst out crying. i asked the PD. how did it get this far???? he told me the state attorneys office didnt have the resources to investigate cases UNTIL just before trial. WTF???
they had time for all the appearances and selecting a jury though.
last case.
my youngest son was across the street. he was 7 days from his 21st birthday. he was drinking a beer. my neighbor runs over and tells me they are aresting him. he was not causing a disturbance. not drunk. not driving. yes i know he should not have been drinking.
however when i ran up the street the guy in black told me that if i could tell him of anyone that migjt be selling drugs. that they would let him go. i said i was just cutting coupons. NO! i dont know any drug dealers. They arrested him.
p.s. i voted for grady judge. believe it or not i have a great deal of respect for officers. i voted for bondi. It’s just something smells to high heaven here. something is radically wrong.
The entire legal system is an anachronism. Legislative procedures are an anachronism. Courtrooms are an anachronism.
We keep electing lawyers and they keep legislating more power into the legal system that is a relic of the 18th century. However, lawyers continue to thrive at the expense of the taxpayer.
Avoid calling the cops at all cost.
Unless your being attacked by a pack of AIDs infected pit bulls, avoid bringing in government agents into the mix.
You bet and ya seem more cash registers in your local courts today, than ya see at the local Walmart.
Stay far away from the legal machine at all costs. It cuts people to pieces.
Good post.
"Horrible" is a damn good description of what some of these courts have done to people.
My kids used the cops as a “surrogate” father when i wasnt home. i personally agree with your assessment.
The point of the article is that the penalties risked for going to trial are very much out of line with the actual crime. I know a guy who, in his young and stupid days, got busted for drugs. He was offered a plea where he would get probation in exchange for pleading guilty to a felony. Rather than risk ten years, he accepted the plea, and has had to live with a record for over a decade now.
The court system is broken. The only way it limps along is by making sure that 90% of arrested do not go to trial. The end result is that first-time offenders get felony records, and career criminals go through a revolving door for years without jail time.
Well, I agree with both of those assertions. I think it's an unfortunate result of how large and impersonal the country has become, an accretion of laws that are beyond necessity, and the self-interest of the prosecutors rated on "results," combined with a less law-abiding population than we used to have.
I understand malum prohibitum. How does that latin lesson change anything?
People whow quit paying income taxes don’t usually get prosecuted. They just get their paycheck and bank accounts seized by the IRS.
SnakeDoc
This is interesting. More so in light of the fact that we’ve slowly and completely criminalized everybody in the US at this point.
Who here isn’t guilty of committing some sort of crime? Its a tough question to answer since its very probable you may not even know you’ve committed a crime in the first place.
When the avalanche has started the individual pebbles no longer have a vote. It’s not just the OWS crowd its Republican’s as well who refuse to defend liberty in exchange for the few scraps that the Democrat party will leave them.
Proof of this is the GOP’s efforts to limit the influence of the TEA party but is spacing off a NEO-NAZI trying to run on the Republican party ticket.
I hope you’re just being intentionally obtuse. I hope your question isn’t serious.
That said:
They’re not interested in their day in court.
They’re not interested in their rights as citizens.
What they want is to tear the system down by overloading it.
He even directly quotes this woman as saying she wants to break the system down by overloading it.
And this is a tactic straight out of Saul Alinsky and Occupy Wall Street.
Alinsky told his followers to make the system go through every channel and follow every rule because no system could stand up to the stress.
OWS has adopted this tactic. Occupiers have discussed crashing the housing system by refusing to pay their mortgages. They have discussed trying to collapse the student loan program by refusing to pay their loans. Last year, they had Frances-Fox Piven (whatever the hell her name is) as a speaker. Back in the 60’s she coauthored a paper where she suggested crashing the welfare system by putting everyone on it.
So now we have this guy writing in the New York Times about how “horrified” he is that someone would suggest breaking down the court system this way. But then he goes on to toy with the idea.
And if you missed all of this, I’m left wondering if you even read the article.
One of the worst things about America in 2012 is that the left is getting away with playing these kinds of games with people like you.
Libs are playing people like you like you’re fiddles. And while you’re arguing that you’re not a fiddle, you’re a cello - you’re missing my overall point that you’re being played.
Unfortunately for your argument, the Constitution guarantees us our day in court. Suggesting as you do that encouraging the accused to excercise their rights is an attack on the system doesn’t pass the smell test unless you propose changing the Constitution.
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