From Rawstory/NYT:
According to a story in tomorrow’s New York Times (reg. req.), trials by jury are “on the verge of extinction” and are being “replaced by settlements and plea deals, by mediations and arbitrations and by decisions from judges.” In fact, “only 1.3 percent of federal civil cases ended in trials last year, down from 11.5 percent in 1962.”
The Times points out in particular that “in criminal cases, the vast majority of prosecutions end in plea bargains” and quotes a judge as complaining that defendents “who have the temerity to ‘request the jury trial guaranteed them under the U.S. Constitution’ … face ’savage sentences’ that can be five times as long as those meted out to defendants who plead guilty and cooperate with the government.”
Excerpts: -MORE-
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Something of a damned if you do and damned it you don’t situation. The longer this goes on the more I wonder just what the hell I’m still doing in the country?
Oh, yeah! I can’t leave. Don’t have the money. I’m gonna go bang my head on the wall…..