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from the things-are-not-always-as-they-appear dept.
[IANAL]
In the US, courts assess guilt or innocence before a conviction, then after that the appellate courts focus solely on fairness. The Atlantic has an exposé on some people who are wrongly convicted are pressured to accept Alford Plea Deals in lieu of exonerations — that more or less means to plead guilty for a verbal guarantee from the courts to both speed things up and give a much lighter or minimal sentence. But how many do this is not known: this situation is not tracked there are no formal statistics. However, in Baltimore City and County alone, there were at least 10 cases in the last 19 years in which defendants with viable innocence claims ended up signing Alford pleas. These can translate to the occasional innocent person being stigmatized, unable to sue the state, and that no one re-investigates the crime meaning that the real perpetrator is never brought to justice.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Thexalon on Monday September 11 2017, @03:11PM (3 children)
Prosecutors are judged first and foremost by their win-loss records. That motivates them to do all sorts of things that they shouldn't, including routinely breaking the rules of evidence and trying to get people convicted when they know the person in question is innocent. That's the motivation for the Alford plea offer: It allows the prosecutor to still claim a scalp even though the person is completely innocent.
The only people who should be judged primarily on win-loss records are those working for professional sports teams.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Monday September 11 2017, @03:26PM (2 children)
The success of TV series like Cops [wikipedia.org], the ratings of CNN's coverage of the murder trial of O. J. Simpson, and the favorable public response to election campaigns by candidates who promise to "get tough on crime" show that the public views law enforcement and prosecution as tantamount to a sport.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday September 11 2017, @03:49PM
One thing I always appreciated about Law and Order is that they would sometimes arrest and try the wrong person. That of course was fiction, but it was good for demonstrating how even idealized cops and prosecutors can and do get it wrong.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 11 2017, @08:53PM
Bread and circuses. All fun and games, until it's you personally that gets sent to the lions.