@YoungBlood
Who the Fawk are cutting Plea Deals with this vermin?
Is this Pam's idea of tuff?
The scumbag had a knife. Should have been exterminated.
Ha! Ha! Ha! Has anybody told him he makes one ugly woman!!!
I hope smears on his face are some bum's shit full of parasites.
Me too. And monkey pox.
@SpiceOfOurLife @YoungBlood
Well, not the dude he got an STD from the last time he was in the slammer.
(1) @DeWalt @YoungBlood Just finished the chapter about plea bargaining in criminal law. I was surprised to learn that jury trials are now a “vanishingly small” part of our criminal justice system. From the chapter, I understood plea bargaining as a tool meant to make the system more efficient by reducing case overload, since there are not enough judges, prosecutors, or court staff to handle every case.
(2) @DeWalt @YoungBlood What alarmed me, however, was the word vanishingly. If plea bargains have become the primary way of determining justice, then (in my opinion) it marks a troubling shift in America and its constitutional protections. This trend feels like a slippery slope, allowing defendants to face lesser charges rather than the full weight of a trial. It raises the unsettling possibility that jury trials could eventually disappear altogether—and if that happens, God help us.
(3) @DeWalt @YoungBlood I understand that with population growth comes an increase in crime, but this is not what our founders envisioned when they crafted the most enduring constitution in the world. As Benjamin Franklin warned, “A republic, if you can keep it.” Perhaps a more balanced approach would be to require jury trials for egregious offenses, while permitting plea bargains in lesser cases.
(4) @DeWalt @YoungBlood Plea bargaining allows prosecutors to focus on high-level offenders, however it does not always appear that way in practice. Too often, those with money or influence or are a “protected class” manage to escape serious consequences, receiving what amounts to a slap on the wrist. It is difficult to draw a clear line between a plea that is coercive and one that is truly voluntary.
(5) @DeWalt @YoungBlood That tension highlights why this issue is so complex—and why we should be concerned about the future of jury trials in America.
I know you know all this @DeWalt but if anyone is interested, here’s a short video briefly discussing plea bargaining:
@Ballerina @YoungBlood
Tort cases are an industry, tying up Juries and Courtrooms for a ridiculous amount of time.
Over criminalization of everything.
Too many lazy incompetent Prosecutors afraid of the inside of a Courtroom.
Activism in the Judiciary.
Those are the problems.
@DeWalt @YoungBlood Tort cases… because we live in a Sue Happy society. My daughter crashed through the top half of a door glass window while being chased by another student. The church where it happened was very nervous I would sue. No. It was an accident. I remember a few people telling me I should sue. No. My daughter survived without injury except a few lasting scars which is a childhood badge IMO.
New York City was denied twice the cost of the entire federal judiciary for just the second avenue subway and hudson tunnel projects.
Most of the judiciary isn't even mandatory spending like judge salaries, which only take about 800 million per year.
Annual payments to bondholders represent 100 times more money spent than the entire federal court system.
The state court systems which adjudicate most crimes are individually smaller than the federal court system, with even a state like California only paying about 3 billion per year for their courts, but together puts the vital role at about 25 billion per year nationwide. Including the federal judiciary that's less than 35 billion, which is still 1/1000 of the federal debt and 1/30 of federal debt maintenance, about the same as NASA, about the same cost as 3 aircraft carriers.
It's pretty strange when you think about it. Unlike NASA, the courts are a core function of government, but they struggle to "find money" for this core function while there are many non-productive things they can magically find lots of money for. The reliance on plea deals is certainly in part justified by the incongruity.
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@sj_zero @Ballerina @DeWalt This is just like when a city has a budget fight. The first things the bureaucrats cut are the fire department and the libraries.
It's an extortion racket. Give us more money every year, or we let you burn.