How the Drug War Disappeared the Jury Trial

outsidethebeltway.com ^ | January 15, 2014 | Brad Schlesinger

[Second Amendment First]

The criminal jury trial is a vital check against prosecutorial excesses, police misconduct, and arbitrary state power. But over the last three decades, criminal justice policy has transferred enormous amounts of power to prosecutors and away from juries and judges. Judges once had wide discretion in weighing the facts and circumstances of each case prior to sentencing. Mandatory sentencing laws give control of sentencing proceedings to prosecutors instead, leading one federal judge to describe the process of sentencing someone to years in prison as having “all the solemnity of a driver’s license renewal and [taking] a small fraction of the time.”

For example, when United States Army veteran Ronald Thompson fired two warning shots into the ground, he intended to scare off his friend’s grandson, who was attempting to enter her home after she denied him entry. He never imagined his actions would leave him facing decades in prison.

He was charged “with four counts of aggravated assault with a firearm” under Florida’s 10-20-Life mandatory minimum gun law. Prosecutors used the minimum twenty years in prison he faced to try to avoid a trial by asking him to accept three years in prison. While the deal remained on the table throughout the trial, he was ultimately convicted and sentenced to twenty years in prison.

[cripplecreek]

Actually the civil rights era probably did far more damage to trial by jury than anything.

[centurion316]

Another piece of strong evidence for the observation that government authority has gotten out of control.

[theBuckwheat]

One area of liberty-oriented activism is to educate the jury pool on their rights and responsibilities as jurors. In states where a verdict must be unanimous, only one member of a jury has to be sufficiently knowledgeable in order to secure acquittal where acquittal is needed to serve justice.

See: Fully Informed Jury Association www.fija.org

[jocon307]

Thanks for posting this, I just read it.

If folks click through the Link and read more about Ronald Thompson they will see the prosecutor was our old friend Angela Corey.

Hubby’s been telling me for years that Florida is a fascist state.

[MrEdd]

Because when the tax laws and the traffic laws previously “disappeared the jury trial” those didn’t count. It only became corruption when drug laws joined in.

Like everything proves anthropomorphic global warming to its adherents, so too everything proves drugs should be legal to addicts.

[Lawgvr1955]

BTT