Do you believe that many people get away with serious crimes, and many innocents are convicted of them?

Answer 1

Another one of the posters had it right when they sprinkled their answers with dollar signs. It is absolutely about how much money you have and how high priced of an attorney you can afford to hire. For example, there was that real estate tycoon (can't remember his name) who killed either 1-2 people. He hired that famous Wyoming lawyer and got off. Do you think a guy from the hood, only being able to afford a public defender, is going to get the same justice?

Having seen the criminal justice system in action this is what I see: The person commits the offense, the DA piles the charges, knowing that all those charges won't stick, but they want to get it down to the offense in which the person did commit will stick. The plea bargain goes into play in which the defendant, facing months or years more in jail than they deserve, pleas to the offense and gets the appropriate punishment.

Everyone is so against plea bargaining, but if it were banned and all defendants went through a jury trial, the criminal justice system would absolutely ground to a halt! There is no way the system could handle that many cases. The system wants plea bargains, because it makes the job easier. It's also enormously expensive to run jury trials for every single case presented before the court.

Obviously, there have been innocent people convicted. The Innocence Project has freed nearly 150 people jailed by eyewitness identification or police interrogation, only to prove usually years later through DNA that the person isn't guilty. There are undoubtedly many more people in prison for crimes they didn't commit..

There are also undoubtedly people in prison for crimes they pled guilty to, but are actually not guilty of the crime in which they pled guilty. (I know of one such person, although they are out of prison now.) Here is how this is played out - the defendant must rely on a public defender, the DA piles charges, they negotiate down, take a guilty plea with the promise of much reduced sentences, but life if found guilty at trial by jury. The person tries to cut their losses by pleading guilty so they're not stuck in prison for life.

Answer 2

I do believe that many people get away with serious crimes, but not that many innocents are convicted. I'd say the conviction rate on the innocent is quite low. Unfortunately, due to over-crowding, plea bargaining, lack of man power, to name a few, and inadequacy of prosecution staff (to name a few) serious offenders get away more than you could imagine

Answer 3

I would say that probably more guilty parties get away than innocents get convicted. Our system is essentially set up that way. It would be equilvalent to Type I and Type II error is statistics. Type I error would be a guilty person goes free, where Type II is an innocent person goes to prison. The system is set up to limit Type II error at the cost of increasing Type I error. Innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and must have all twelve jurors agree.

Would you not have a guilty person get away than an innocent person go to jail?

Answer 4

A few in each case. What seems worse is a company steals hundreds of millions, the CEO gets 5 years (or a kid sets a fire in a dorm, kills 3 and gets 15 months). A guy steals a car and gets 3 to 5 years. How is that fair?

Answer 5

Of course it does. Money talks and Bull**** walks. Just look at the case of the two border patrol agents who were convicted of shooting a smuggler. They had poor lawyers and the drug smuggler was given full immunity to testify. He had over 700 pounds of dope in his vehicle and he walks and is suing the United States government for five million dollars.

Answer 6

Yes, I do.
For example, I believe marijuana should be legalized, and taxed. If it were, our jails (Canada and US) would find themselves suddenly not overcrowded. Next, perhaps those 'drug war' dollars could be directed to a more useful purpose to benefit society, say like, providing the necessities to ALL of the citizens, and then maybe they wouldn't all grow up and commit violent crimes. I know that crime would not be eradicated through social programs, but it would certainly minimize. We can look to places like the Netherlands and Switzerland if we need a good example. And in my future, I hope, Canada one day.

Answer 7

YE$. $ome people will alway$ get away with whatever they want to do, while other$ $erve long $entence$ for le$$er crime$. But I have no idea why thi$ i$...

Answer 8

No. I do believe that a lot of poor people get unjustly convicted or harsh sentences and rich people get off or sent to country club jail (Martha Stewart)

Answer 9

why i wouldn't be surprised the lynch mob sometimes just
gets moved into the courthouse .... and justice needs to get a make-over ..... vengence over justice ? I think not! if protection and economics punish though too bad that's just life and not intentional ... serve justice not the state.

Answer 10

Yes i do its happened to one of my friends a lot of times and to one of my sons