Thoughts from Conrad Black:
American prosecutors win 99.5 percent of their cases, a much higher percentage than those in other civilized countries; that 97 percent of them are won without trial, because of the plea-bargain system in which inculpatory evidence is extorted from witnesses in exchange for immunity from prosecution, including for perjury; that the U.S. has six to twelve times as many incarcerated people per capita as do Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, or the United Kingdom, comparably prosperous democracies; that the U.S. has 5 percent of the world’s population, 25 percent of its incarcerated people, and half of its academically qualified lawyers, who take about 10 percent of U.S. GDP; that prosecutors enjoy very uneven advantages in procedure and an absolute immunity for misconduct; that they routinely seize targets’ money on false affidavits alleging ill-gotten gains so they cannot defend themselves by paying rapacious American lawyers, most of whom in criminal-defense matters are just a fig leaf to provide a pretense of a genuine day in court before blind justice; that the Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth Amendment rights that are the basis of the American claim to being a society of laws don’t really exist in practice; and that far too many judges are ex-prosecutors who have not entirely shed the almost universal prosecutorial will to crucify.
But other than that, it’s great.
Also, many elected officials started out as prosecutors. They collect scalps which they can then wave around as steppingstones to higher office.
That’s why the acronym “AG” is sometimes read “aspiring governor”.
Yes, this is just the symptom of a much bigger problem. We are living in a time of the big lie and it is working.
Immunity from perjury charges over testimony given in a plea deal is WAY over the line from reasonable.
Used to be a Felony was a serious crime. Now it’s hard to avoid committing several, daily.
We’ve got a friend who used to be a gov’t spokesman here in NC. His bosses and the bosses long time buddies, played fast and loose with campaign finance money. When the bosses and cronies were found out and charged, they charged our friend too. The federal agents supposition was that, if he had made the dancing around the issues statements FOR his bosses, he colluded WITH his bosses on the money.
They couldn’t find that he’d accepted any money.
He and his wife’s finances were heavily combed, and they found nothing awry.
He gave them permission to look in all the offshore places to see if he could be tied to an offshore pot of stolen campaign finance money. Again, nothing found.
BUT, they charged him with multiple counts of money laundering and mail fraud types of charges. In total, he was looking t over 25 years in jail. so he did what most people do, he took a plea deal that put him in a federal, maximum security prison, for 30 months. When he got out he spent 7 months in a half-way house, even though he and his wife owned a home free and clear. Now the man is a lea bargain felon, with no way to expunge his record nor any legal way to clear his name.
But the prosecutor got a 100% conviction record on that case.
To a law abiding person, it’s galling and worrying. That they could charge you, and dare you to go to trial is NOT what the founders had in mind I’m pretty sure. Prosecutors who are looking at their PERSONAL conviction rate, instead of worrying about justice being served, is wrong.
It’s wrong where we’ve gotten as a nation as far as crime rates, arrest rates and conviction rates. Our jails are full, but serious criminals are getting repeated slaps on the wrist, rather than DA’s going after them for ALL the crimes they’ve been caught doing. Most criminals see courts as a hindrance to their lives not a deterrent to committing crime.
The only one who gets his just desserts in this system, are the Prosecutors, because it ‘looks’ like they are doing something in the MSM!
Der Schtumpy:
“We’ve got a friend who used to be a gov’t spokesman here in NC.” <– I see the problem.
Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas.