4 ms·
The vast majority of convictions arise from plea bargaining. Prosecutors and law enforcement stack charges so that it appears to be a 'good deal' to just accep
by sathackr 9y ago
The vast majority of convictions arise from plea bargaining.
Prosecutors and law enforcement stack charges so that it appears to be a 'good deal' to just accept a plea deal rather than risk trial and spending decades behind bars on the slight chance you will be falsely convicted.
IMO this is the single biggest problem with our system.
Plea bargaining and prosecutorial discretion makes a mockery of due process.
Overloaded public defenders and the lack of competent and affordable defense attorneys shifts most of this problem to the lower income brackets.
- dtech 9y agoThere is not a lot wrong with plea bargaining if an innocent suspect can except a fair trail, it trades a more lenient sentence for criminals for a more efficient, speedier and cheaper system. The problem in the US is that poor innocent suspects have heavily stacked odds in a trail: multiple biases in judges and juries and no good lawyer with enough time for their defense. So an innocent must take the plea bargain because trail isn't a reasonable option.
- romwell 9y agoSo, there's a lot wrong about plea bargaining.
- em3rgent0rdr 9y agoNo...I think the parent was arguing that the problems are around plea-bargaining, not plea-bargaining itself. I personally think the biggest problem is the inbalance between prosecutor's ability to threatening absurdly large sentences. That distorts the expected value of the risk analysis in the favor of prosecution. But if the worst-case penalties were more reasonable, then plea-bargaing could be a reasonable way to reduce risk.