Posted on 04/14/2021 8:02:14 AM PDT by Heartlander
I’m a criminal defense attorney. If we got rid of the plea bargain then the entire system would grind to a halt. Citizens would spend most of their time sitting on juries. In California (where I am) the most productive reform would be to repeal Prop 115, which basically gutted the institution of the preliminary hearing in felony cases. Prop 115 allowed the introduction of hearsay evidence into preliminary hearings. It was an enormous power grab by the DAs. The best approach to my mind is to re-empower judges to throw out overcharged crimes by repealing Prop 115.
That’s a great essay!
“The real solution is to abolish the plea deal...”
It’s a bad idea.
First, without plea deals, the cost to the taxpayers who pay for the courts, the prosecutors and in many cases the defense teams would increase exponentially.
Second, courts would get so backed-up that defendant’s 6th Amendment rights would be violated.
Third, many other crimes, that would otherwise be solved from information obtained in plea deals, would never be solved.
Finally, the prosecutors would have no choice but to drop charges on most all defendants.
Without plea bargains, every case will have to be tried. That means you will need many more judges, many more courtrooms, many more prosecutors and support staff, and you will have much a greater delay in getting to trial. This means some cases are going to be dismissed by the prosecution because of scarce resources, or lack of available evidence or witnesses. Others will be dismissed by the court for unreasonable delay. Many cases will never be brought because the prosecutor’s office simply cannot handle the burden. Then too, trials, and especially jury trials are always a crap shoot, and the prosecution cannot be assured of winning every case, no matter how good it looks.
Speaking about his forty years defending criminal clients, he shocked a group of young lawyers by saying, "They're guilty. They're all guilty."
As a plaintiff’s attorney who generally makes more money settling cases than trying them, I’m still not so sure having citizens spending more time on juries would be a bad thing. And if there are so many criminal prosecutions that our courts can’t keep up with it, perhaps that’s a signal that we either have too many crimes or too many criminals, and that one of the problems with plea bargains is that they help sweep both problems under the rug.
Maybe I’m naive, but if plea deals are eliminated I think we can solve the problem of an overburdened court system by drastically reducing the size of the criminal codes and by imposing lengthy prison sentences to reduce recidivism.
LWOP Is actually death by incarceration.
Real lifers can get paroled after so many years, but LWOP can never get out.
How about a quick trial, and summary execution for violent crimes? I can cure the whole criminal justice system in just a few days: If we treat violent criminals as quickly and violently as they dealt their victims crime would evaporate .
Rob a store? on video? Yep, guilty, off to artic version of Rura Penthe....forever. NO appeals, no parole, just disappear.
Harm anyone? You get the same injury or pay for everything as long as victim needs it.
Kill someone?
Dead the next day after breakfast. Next!
Maybe that reflects another problem where too many things are criminalized?
I’d rather see them executed.
I have no problem spending more on courts. They serve one of the few truly essential government functions, and the money we spend on them is a drop in the bucket of federal, state, and local budgets. I think we can do with one less light rail to nowhere in each city to pay for sufficient courts and prosecutors to actually handle the public's business.
I'm undecided on plea bargains. But lack of resources should not be a reason for them. If we have too many criminal prosecutions for our courts to handle, the answer should be more courts or fewer prosecutions, not cutting corners with something as serious as this.
It was not illegal to drink it just to make it or import or sell it.
The problem is overcriminalization. There are so many criminal laws on the books that every single American living has probably committed some felony and didn't even know it.
Rather than getting rid of plea deals, get rid of criminal laws in area that the government has no business legislating in.
We don't need a specific felony offense for the theft of pine needles.
Indeed.
The plea deal means the prosecution and the defense have a whole lot less work to do which is more important to a lot of them than seeking justice.
I agree with you that we need to de-criminalize a lot of things. If I had my druthers I’d legalize (or at least de-criminalize) things like drugs, prostitution, and gambling. I’d re-criminalize loitering, living with no visible means of support, etc. Basically, give back to people the freedom to do with themselves as they wish but then impose upon them full responsibility for their actions.
My son is in LWOP by being a tagalong with a guy he shouldn't have been with and did nothing, but by association, guilty. ... for the last 22 years
What’s LWOP?
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