5 ms·
American justice is bizarre. It seems so dependent on the prosecutor doing the "right thing" it makes you wonder why they bother with a defense team, judge or j
by smegel 11y ago
American justice is bizarre. It seems so dependent on the prosecutor doing the "right thing" it makes you wonder why they bother with a defense team, judge or jury at all. Just let the prosecutor decide who's guilty!
- jackpirate 11y agoThen how would the rich avoid punishment for their crimes? /s (but only slightly)
- tsotha 11y agoStatistically the rich don't do any better than anyone who can afford a lawyer. The people who get screwed are the ones relying on court-appointed counsel. They do significantly worse.
- rplnt 11y agoJust an anecdote, but extremes like this happen too https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Durst#Trial https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Durst#Trial
- Confusion 11y agoBeing able to afford a lawyer is synonymous with being rich. If you can spend 100K on lawyer fees without going bankrupt, you were rich.
- tsotha 11y agoMost people who own a house or have savings or have family can scrape together enough money to engage a lawyer. How much that actually costs depends on the charge. So many cases are pled out these days (98% at the federal level), I doubt more than a tiny percentage of defendants are spending anything like $100k.
- hyperpape 11y agoGuessing this is conditional on getting brought to trial right? A prosecutor is going to bring a murder charge no matter who the suspect is, but that Senator's son's DUI? Or that four star general sharing classified information with his mistress? Might get pled for chump change or charges mgbt get dropped.
- tsotha 11y agoMight be, but can you assume that without evidence?
- coldtea 11y agoOn what kind of crimes? Because for white collar crime, the one that defines the rich, its almost impossible to get them...
- ejk314 11y agoIt's possible that white collar crime is just hard to prosecute in general, but poor people have less opportunity to commit white collar crime. So what we really need to do is make white collar crime more accessible. /s?
- coldtea 11y agoAs Anatole France said, "In its majestic equality, the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges".
- benihana 11y agoleave this kind of pointless platitude with no facts or sources to reddit please. they love that kind of shit over there.
- jamesfe 11y agoIn this case, the prosecutor was clearly wrong. But what is the flip side of this? If the client admits to the defense that he's guilty, are they bound to defend him, knowing that they're already in the wrong?
- eyci 11y agoInteresting point - although it's not really symmetrical. For example, Blackstone's formulation - "It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer". In addition, prosecutors are presumably held to a higher standard than defense lawyers, since they are state employees and are bound to act in the public interest.
- jccc 11y agoWho is the defense attorney to judge the client guilty or innocent? Maybe the client's insane, maybe the damning evidence the attorney's seen is compelling but incomplete or misleading. We defer to the process for a reason. And human nature being what it is, that process is built on a presumption of innocence.
- AaronM 11y agoYes, IANAL, but they would look for their client to get off on a technicality rather than being innocent