7 ms·
The costs of the US justice system are already exorbitant, with plea deals being the norm. Public defense offices are overworked and understaffed, judge calenda
by Sacho 9y ago
The costs of the US justice system are already exorbitant, with plea deals being the norm. Public defense offices are overworked and understaffed, judge calendars are overbooked, quality representation costs millions... I forgot which justice said it, but basically the justice system relies on plea deals as it stands. I don't know what kind of sweeping reform would be required to change that.
Edit: "That is what plea bargaining is. It is not some adjunct to the criminal justice system; it is the criminal justice system." Scott & Stuntz, Plea Bargaining as Contract, 101 Yale L. J. 1909, 1912 (1992). "
Quoted in Missouri v Frye before the Supreme Court(https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=16929683133924452834 https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=169296831339244...)
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- jimnotgym 9y agoWhereas lots of other countries don't have them. Could it be that the US are prosecuting too many people? Too many things are illegal perhaps? The war on drugs maybe? Perhaps, when so many people are doing something illegal that your criminal justice system can't take the strain it is time to consider what is illegal? Plea bargains on the other hand seem to be working around justice.
- dsfyu404ed 9y agoMaybe we're prosecuting too many people because too much otherwise unremarkable behavior is illegal.
- derefr 9y agoIs it just that we don’t have enough public defenders? It sounds like there’s a good opportunity here to convince the government that 10x-ing the number of lawyers they hire would make for a good jobs program.