Go To Trial - Crash The Justice System; NY Times; Mar. 2012

[anothen]

(Sorry if posted in the wrong forum, this
article is from New York Times, but stated
Columbus Ohio, so I'll leave it up to the very
capable, alert, efficient and loving hands
of our modervators <-- speall check)

Go to Trial: Crash the Justice System New York Times; March 10, 2012; By MICHELLE ALEXANDER; opinion

“What would happen if we organized thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of people charged with crimes to refuse to play the game, to refuse to plea out? What if they all insisted on their Sixth Amendment right to trial? Couldn’t we bring the whole system to a halt just like that?”

I thought of this very thing long ago after I
was caught in the spin cycle of the (in)justice
system. Had I known then what I know now,
I would have fought tooth and nail.
I'm not going to rant to the readers here at
PTO, because most of you know everything
and more of what I would ever have to say.
All I know is, the system is doing a side step
from our protected constitutional rights, and
it is getting worse every year.
At some point, it has to give.

The Bill of Rights guarantees the accused basic safeguards, including the right to be informed of charges against them, to an impartial, fair and speedy jury trial, to cross-examine witnesses and to the assistance of counsel.

But in this era of mass incarceration — when our nation’s prison population has quintupled in a few decades partly as a result of the war on drugs and the “get tough” movement — these rights are, for the overwhelming majority of people hauled into courtrooms across America, theoretical. More than 90 percent of criminal cases are never tried before a jury. Most people charged with crimes forfeit their constitutional rights and plead guilty.

We, that is 90% of us who are caught
in the spin cycle give up our constitutional
rights. I never knew it was that high.
But that is our system and because it is
taking this side step from intended procedures
it becomes unfair and unbalanced.

In the race to incarcerate, politicians champion stiff sentences for nearly all crimes, including harsh mandatory minimum sentences and three-strikes laws; the result is a dramatic power shift, from judges to prosecutors.

And that is the reason why, it is a Power shift
from Judges to the Prosecutors.

Will it ever change?
I just do not see it in the near future. Too
many of us, like myself, do not (did not) really realize,
and to what value it is, we give up when we
take a plea.

[aradia]

I can't count how many times i have ranted about this. whenever one of my boyfriends had a case i attended every court appearance i could. Most of the time, for whatever reason, their cases were heard at the end of the day. I ended up sitting through a whole lot of other cases &i i heard only 2 people refuse to waive time. or take a plea. i got the impression that most of them had no idea what waiving their rights away meant. i mean, they said the words but without any comprehension. I wanted to say "don't you see they can't make you waive your right to a speedy trial, & the only way they can hear all their cases is if you waive that right?" as to innocent before proven guilty, i found that's strictly an urban myth... I heard a girl speak over her public defender in court because he presumed (wrongly) that she would plead guilty. Her "Not guilty" plea was so unprecedented it shut the whole room up. They were shocked, i mean apparently it "just wasn't done"; the possibility of innocence wasn't ever entertained in that place. i know that it's 1 thing to say "refuse to waive your rights go to trial" instead of taking a plea; i have been there & even if you're innocent, & understand what it means to waive away your rights, everything is so scary & confusing & it takes a lot of courage to refuse to waive them.Plus you just want to get out of there & deferred freedom is almost without meaning. But why should you cut the court the slack IT MUST HAVE have to meet calendar caseloads? Why should you give them extra time they have to have to prosecute you? It's their problem if they can't meet the deadlines, not yours. Idealistically it would rock if EVERYBODY would quit waving time all at once but that is truly a personal decision. pressure to not waive would be almost as bad as the pressure to waive. but if there were some way to explain what it means to people when they are facing those decisions, so they really understood what they were agreeing to, then who knows what might happen. Like an advocate to talk to groups of inmates waiting to be arraigned. Even a little printout or pamphlet. Something legal, simple, straightforward.i think it could be one of those tipping point sort of things.

[lovesjames]

I didn't understand the system or my rights several years ago when I was charged with a DUI. My PD just told me that I should plead or I could get a year in jail if I took it to trial. I plead. If I knew then what I know now, I wouldn't have.