All 250 of you: you're out of here! - Judge

[Galloism]

Sources:

Slate

Al-Jazeera

Only two sources I could find. I would copy and paste this information here, but my phone seems to disagree with the notion. If the first poster could copy the slate article into the second post I'd be much obliged.

Long story short: an astute defense attorney uncovered an unconstitutional scheme by the Orange County prosecutor's office to use the so-called "jailhouse confession" to continue interrogations after suspects had already obtained counsel. He had two clients being testified against by the same jailhouse informant. When the defense attorney subpeonaed information to prove it, the Orange County DAs office lied to the court and stated it didn't exist.

In fact: they maintained it in a databased organized for easy indexing.

In addition, the "jailhouse informants" they used had lied under oath on multiple occasions - a fact of which the DAs office was well aware. They put them on the stand knowing full well the informants were committing perjury. In addition, far from being random, suspects in high profile cases were placed deliberately with jailhouse informants who had provided convincing testimony in the past. The informants were compensated for a good confession - one of them has gotten over $150,000 from the DA's office.

Orange County has enjoyed a 10% higher conviction rate than the rest of California. They brag about it even. Now we know why.

The prosecutor's office now claims that these were all accidents, and they're doing "reform" with "better training" etc etc. I think it's all whitewash. This is because the prosecutor's office is now trying to retaliate against the judge: throwing him off case after case using court procedures.

[Greed and Death]

The incentives for prosecutors and ADAs are skewed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLv3U0TiPfg

[Ethel mermania]

The incentives for prosecutors and ADAs are skewed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLv3U0TiPfg

Indeed, they are graded on success, not justice. Such is the life of an adversarial system.

[Greed and Death]

The incentives for prosecutors and ADAs are skewed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLv3U0TiPfg

Indeed, they are graded on success, not justice. Such is the life of an adversarial system.

Prosecutors have their own set of ethics but they violate them often.

[Ethel mermania]

Indeed, they are graded on success, not justice. Such is the life of an adversarial system.

Prosecutors have their own set of ethics but they violate them often.

Agreed, but they are incented on convictions, which rewards them to deliver convictions, not justice. They don't get paid more for sucesfully passing an internal audit as to whether they cheated or not.

[Zeinbrad]

Is it just me, or is America seemed to be obsessed with high convection rates?

[Narland]

Is it just me, or is America seemed to be obsessed with high convection rates?

Yes. Convicting peops of crime is big business. Counties recieve more money from the states for new convicts, states receive more federal money for each new convict. Private correctional institutions get paid for housing them. States trade their convicts to other states for compensation-- my step brother (an Idaho native) was shipped off to Oklahoma to serve a drunk driving sentence for instance, because it was cheaper to pay OK to house him than to build yet another prison. Peops lost in the criminal justice system are more and more treated like assets. We (America) now incarcerate more people per capita than the Soviet Union had in its gulags.

addenda: One of the side effects of the philosophy that it is better to have a system that errs on the side of caution (better that some guilty go free than one innocent person be sent to prison) is that some guilty people DO go free., and it drives some people to connive methods to make it easier to convict people. Prosecutors reputations are at stake when they do not have a high enough conviction rate.

[Geilinor]

Is it just me, or is America seemed to be obsessed with high convection rates?

That's what elected prosecutors run on. This might be an example of too much democracy.

[Ethel mermania]

Is it just me, or is America seemed to be obsessed with high convection rates?

Ideally you don't bring someone to trial if you don't think you can get a conviction. The question here is the methodology of doing so. A fair trial is suppose to be ... fair.

[Llamalandia]

Is it just me, or is America seemed to be obsessed with high convection rates?

Not nearly as much Japan. But they kind of fudge the numbers a bit anyway. I mean were talking over 90% if not mistaken. But of course they are also much slower to make arrests and probably let a few people slip through the cracks.

[Benuty]

Is it just me, or is America seemed to be obsessed with high convection rates?

Considering it is the very foundation of a part of the U.S economy then yes unfortunately.

[Llamalandia]

Is it just me, or is America seemed to be obsessed with high convection rates?

Considering it is the very foundation of a part of the U.S economy then yes unfortunately.

Actually, I believe we generally try and arrange plea deals to avoid the expense of trial. But yeah, if you take it that far you are pretty screwed. I mean, prosecutor don't just pursue every case after all, they only take cases generally they have faith they can win. Of course this is the unfortunate downside of overzealous prosecutors willing to cheat and game the system.

[Galloism]

Prosecutors have their own set of ethics but they violate them often.

Agreed, but they are incented on convictions, which rewards them to deliver convictions, not justice. They don't get paid more for sucesfully passing an internal audit as to whether they cheated or not.

And that causes a problem, not one uncommon to adversarial systems: cheating.

However, when we identify a cheater in an adversarial system, if it's deliberate, they should be banned (or, in this context - disbarred). Hard line on those who deliberately violate the rules.