The criminal justice system in the United States today bears little
relationship to what the Founding Fathers contemplated, what the movies
and television portray, or what the average American believes.
To
the Founding Fathers, the critical element in the system was the jury
trial, which served not only as a truth-seeking mechanism and a means of
achieving fairness, but also as a shield against tyranny. As Thomas
Jefferson famously said, “I consider [trial by jury] as the only anchor
ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the
principles of its constitution.”
The drama inherent in these guarantees is regularly portrayed in
movies and television programs as an open battle played out in public
before a judge and jury. But this is all a mirage. In actuality, our
criminal justice system is almost exclusively a system of plea
bargaining, negotiated behind closed doors and with no judicial
oversight. The outcome is very largely determined by the prosecutor
alone.
In 2013, while 8 percent of all federal criminal charges
were dismissed (either because of a mistake in fact or law or because
the defendant had decided to cooperate), more than 97 percent of the
remainder were resolved through plea bargains, and fewer than 3 percent
went to trial. The plea bargains largely determined the sentences
imposed.
While corresponding statistics for the fifty states combined are not
available, it is a rare state where plea bargains do not similarly
account for the resolution of at least 95 percent of the felony cases
that are not dismissed; and again, the plea bargains usually determine
the sentences, sometimes as a matter of law and otherwise as a matter of
practice. Furthermore, in both the state and federal systems, the power
to determine the terms of the plea bargain is, as a practical matter,
lodged largely in the prosecutor, with the defense counsel having little
say and the judge even less.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2014/nov/20/why-innocent-people-plead-guilty/
No comments:
Post a Comment