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How to make an innocent client plead guilty

My stepfather is an attorney who deals mostly in family law but a bit in criminal defense. The article is dead-nuts on. The deck is stacked extraordinarily in favor of the prosecution.

TurtleDude was (or is) a prosecutor, so I'd be interested to see his take on it.
 
radcen said:
Thoughts? Seems heavily one-sided.
Click to expand...

radcen said:
Thoughts? Seems heavily one-sided.
Click to expand...


It happens.

Most everyone assumes that the " Expert " is never wrong.

There are good Cops and bad cops. There are good aircraft pilots and there are bad ones. There are good engineers and bad ones. There are good insurance agents and bad ones.

There are Cops , Aircraft pilots, engineers, and insurance agents whom know what they are talking about....... and there are ones whom don't have the slightest idea.

There are good lawyers...... and bad ones.

So, if a defendant gets a good lawyer ; they stand a chance.

More than likely if the prosecution in a case threatens, slams their hand on the table, and yells........something is amiss. It's simple......time is on the side of the prosecution in a case. The prosecution would not have a person in custody if they were not willing to go to trial. Why would a prosecution team offer a five year sentence plea ; for a person facing fifteen years...... absent of the defendant offering info? They don't have a case, messed up judicially, erred in the prosecution process.

The job of Defense Counsel is to protect the defendants rights, and to defend the accused. Over zealous prosecutors sometimes go overboard ..... adding charges. Innocent people are arrested most everyday. Innocent people are sentenced to incarceration almost everyday.

Some police and prosecutors want to solve the crime. So.....arrest someone while the guilty are still free.

The law and the judicial process can be funny , political, personal as well as biased. Lawyers whom get sanctioned or disbarred ........The State Bars in the US has long lists. That's what happens when a good attorney or defense attorney does not take things at face value.

It's evident - and some attorneys don't pay attention. Attorneys whom practice long enough get either a good or bad reputation. Some are mediocre attorneys in the courtroom and some are bad. Just as a defense attorney knows beforehand if he can get bail for their client or not......based on a judge's reputation and past decisions ; lawyers and law firms also gain either good or bad fame based on their legal ability and how they practice law.

Problems are compounded sometimes. Lawyers are most the time...... The problem.

Lawyers not only practice law, they also investigate. So having good investigative and interview skills is important. Lawyers must interact with others and different professions ------ so interpersonal communication is important. But in the end......Some lawyers cannot do everything that is required of them, and they fail their client.

Innocent people incarcerated is terrible. Wrongful imprisonment, possible civil right violations, lost time with family, lost income, mental and psychological damage , failure to complete some lives goals. How do youj make up for that......MONEY? MONEY does not solve all of lives problems like some people thinks it does.......but money is most generally the sole motivator for both prosecution and defense in the courtroom, that is where lawyers get blindsided is over MONEY !

Innocence of a defendant cost much much more....... than money.



Major Lambda
 
Kobie said:
My stepfather is an attorney who deals mostly in family law but a bit in criminal defense. The article is dead-nuts on. The deck is stacked extraordinarily in favor of the prosecution.

TurtleDude was (or is) a prosecutor, so I'd be interested to see his take on it.
Click to expand...

Very much so....
 
radcen said:
Thoughts? Seems heavily one-sided.
Click to expand...

Yes, this article is entirely accurate. I once sat on a jury trial for a murder. I feel very certain we got the right guy, but I came away with the distinct impression that the justice system is set up to railroad the people who fall into it. As a relevant footnote, after that trial, I learned that the prosecution (same prosecutor) put the guy's accomplice on trial, but claimed that the accomplice was the trigger-man in that trial, where they had claimed exactly the opposite in the trial on which I sat.

My wife did a thesis on wrongful convictions, and the research she did was truly disturbing. The statistics we have for wrongful convictions--that it's something like 1 in every 15--are almost certainly skewed, because that's based only on the cases that innocence projects are able to take on, so they only involve long sentences where the prosecutor and/or detectives were dimbos who couldn't cover their trail. The actual proportion of wrongful convictions is probably closer to anywhere from 1 in 8 to 1 in 3.
 
ashurbanipal said:
Yes, this article is entirely accurate. I once sat on a jury trial for a murder. I feel very certain we got the right guy, but I came away with the distinct impression that the justice system is set up to railroad the people who fall into it. As a relevant footnote, after that trial, I learned that the prosecution (same prosecutor) put the guy's accomplice on trial, but claimed that the accomplice was the trigger-man in that trial, where they had claimed exactly the opposite in the trial on which I sat.

My wife did a thesis on wrongful convictions, and the research she did was truly disturbing. The statistics we have for wrongful convictions--that it's something like 1 in every 15--are almost certainly skewed, because that's based only on the cases that innocence projects are able to take on, so they only involve long sentences where the prosecutor and/or detectives were dimbos who couldn't cover their trail. The actual proportion of wrongful convictions is probably closer to anywhere from 1 in 8 to 1 in 3.
Click to expand...

After working with law enforcement for a few years when I was much younger, I can tell you that when a law enforcement officer brings you in for questioning, he/she is building a case against you. You need to remember and recite these 4 words: "I want a lawyer."
 
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