4 ms·
That is true--the checks and balances the founding fathers fought so hard for were thrown out the window with overlegislation and expansion of prosecutorial dis
by jasonfarnon 4mo ago
That is true--the checks and balances the founding fathers fought so hard for were thrown out the window with overlegislation and expansion of prosecutorial discretion in 20th century. To make a convincing argument that "double digits" of cases involve fabricated evidence, you still need to explain why prosecutors would engage in fraud at this massive scale. Just laziness? Collecting scalps? The incentives run that way in some limited cases, e.g., prosecutor up for election, post-reconstruction south. But you need some explanation there.
- inigyou 4mo agoThey get rewarded based on winning cases?
- jasonfarnon 4mo agoYeah, again, there are some incentives to fabricate evidence like career advancement. Now why should those, on a mass scale, outweigh disincentives like getting caught in an adversarial process and (presumably) some qualm about regularly convicting innocents and regularly letting guilty parties run free in communities. Easy to argue in particular cases but I haven't heard the basis for a trend.
- inigyou 4mo agoWhat adversarial process? If the prosecutor loses the case, the defendant doesn't go to jail but still receives a very big punishment and the prosecutor loses nothing. And prosecutors never prosecute themselves for false prosecution.
- jasonfarnon 4mo agoadversarial process = anglo-american trial system = a defendant has an attorney who is looking for prosecutorial misconduct
- jrflowers 4mo ago> (presumably) some qualm This sounds like you’re imagining how prosecutors as a group sort of feel about things, generally, and that this notion you’ve thought of outweighs the demonstrable real-world system where prosecutors are awarded for convictions, full stop.
- jasonfarnon 4mo agoI certainly didn't claim " this notion you’ve thought of outweighs the demonstrable real-world system ". However the original comment requires that " " this notion you’ve thought of [doesn't] outweighs the demonstrable real-world system ", and that's what I wanted evidence of. Don't shift the burden of proof onto me.