V, I like you and have respect for you. You have 'stuck' in there and provide backups for your statements. Sometimes you make me think you are still 'inexperienced' with the world.
The REASON the FED GOVT has a very high conviction rate is also the same reason the SD DA has a high conviction rate. THEY CHEAT.
It has been in the news over the past year that the FBI TESTING LABS were giving POSITIVE results on tests whether they were actually POSITIVE or NEGATIVE.
Not that hard to win when you cheat all the time.
Trust me, cheating is not the reason they ussually win.
It's also not hard to win when you have the taxpayer's money to put as many people on the case as you want, all paid for by you and me (and the defendant) and the defendant is either left to hire his own attorneys at enormous expense, or he is stuck with some hack paid a pittance to defend him.
Here's an idea the level the playing field: for every dollar the prosecution spends on attorneys, investigators, and expert witnesses, the defendant gets one dollar for his attorneys, investigators, and expert witnesses. Expensive? You bet your buns, it's expensive. "But if it saves just one life...." Why shouldn't as much money be spent on the defendant's defense as on his prosecution? If it's that important to throw the guilty in jail, shouldn't we as a society make sure we have the right person, and make sure that innocent citizens shouldn't have to bankrupt themselves when the corrupt and overzealous agents of the state come to the house with the legirons?