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I agree that an adversarial system is an effective system for truth discovery. However, in order for it to be an effective and unbiased truth discovery system,
by lmkg 17y ago
I agree that an adversarial system is an effective system for truth discovery. However, in order for it to be an effective and unbiased truth discovery system, there need to be a couple of restraints on both parties, like fully sharing information and evidence. Because prosecutors are incentivized to achieve prosecutions rather than truth, they are encouraged to push (or break) those constraints. While the adversarial system is reasonably effective in theory, the fact that one side is encouraged to miss the forest (truth) for the trees (conviction) has degenerate effects on edge cases.
The other major problem is advocacy gap. An ambitious prosecutor looking to jump-start his career will provide unbalanced advocacy compared to a pro-bono defense lawyer.
- nollidge 17y ago> the fact that one side is encouraged to miss the forest (truth) for the trees (conviction) has degenerate effects on edge cases You have to take into account the fact that the defense is encouraged to miss the forest (truth) for the trees (exoneration) as well.
- lmkg 17y agoTrue. However, rather than balancing out, in practice that doubles the number of edge cases.