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It only seems that way to you and other people who feel that way because you only hear about the times when the system fails. Not the vast majority of times whe
by meri_dian 9y ago
It only seems that way to you and other people who feel that way because you only hear about the times when the system fails. Not the vast majority of times when it works.
- cryptonector 9y agoThe vast majority of all criminal court cases end up in plea deals. That was never the norm prior to Prohibition, and, later, the drug war. Judges used to dislike plea deals. Now they need them in order to keep load down. Plea deals are extremely coercive. It's all too easy for an innocent defendant with marginal resources to take a plea deal because the alternative is worse. Yes, plea deals are a cup half-empty/full thing, but all too often they are coercive rather than a good deal for a guilty defendant. Lastly, whatever happened to "better ten guilty men go free than one innocent man be imprisoned"?? We absolutely should consider innocent people convictions as a metric that counts for ten times that of guilty people who got less (or no) time than they should have. Do you not agree?
- meri_dian 9y agoI am in agreement with you. Luckily the majority of people convicted of crimes are actually guilty of what they're convicted of. Now I don't believe people should be going to jail for petty drug offences, and that drugs in general should be decriminalized, so we can disagree that the laws being used to convict people should be changed, but the vast majority of people being convicted of breaking laws are actually breaking those laws.
- yequalsx 9y agoConsider the possibility that your assumption about the state of my knowledge on the legal system is incorrect. Assume this. Then present reasons why my disgust is unwarranted. That would be a good starting point for further discussion.