>Second, prosecutors don't create the problematic system, they are just
>grunts doing their job -- which mostly involves keeping bad guys off the
>streets, btw, and I say this as a criminal defense lawyer. 98% of what
>they do is wholly laudable work done under difficult to impossible
>conditions -- and with state prosecutors, for little pay. ASAs here in
>Illinois start at, what, $30K? The problem is partly too few resources to
>support jury trials, partly (mainly) way too much criminalization and
>incarceration.
>
>
>jks
I have a good friend who moved from working in the public defenders office (as a PD) to working in the DA's office (as an ASA). She felt she could do more good there. She held to the belief that hundreds of innocent people were being prosecuted and not getting proper defense council so she went to work as a PD. After three years she realized that an innocent person being prosecuted is rare. Most persons prosecuted for a crime were guilty of many more that they were not charged for. She moved to the DA's office and although she does plea bargains she believes that she generally gets a better deal for people from this side of the argument than she did from the defense side. I am not in a position to judge so I will defer to her judgement unless I find out otherwise later. It seems that if you are a prosecutor trying to screw people this is a pretty powerful position from which to do it very effectively. These seem to be the people most often rewarded in the DA's office. The flip side seems to be that as a prosecutor if you are genuinely trying to help people in trying circumstances this also a pretty powerful position from which to do some good. She handles way too many cases to give everyone a really fair shake however, a problem she readily concedes but has no practical solution for. Prosecutors it would seem are also given pretty skimpy resources in order to bring about the same effect as skimping on funds for the PD's office. Process poor people quickly through the system before anyone really has a chance to find out much about the case. Salary for an entry level position as an ASA in Cook County Illinois is $43,XXX. My friend makes about that, (after a few years on the job) but she isn't in Illinois. She also said the entry level pay was identical for either position where she lives, something that did surprise me.
John Thornton
>Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu> wrote:
>
>
>andie nachgeborenen wrote:
> >
> > A few years ago one Circuit, I think it was the 10th, ruled that an
> > offer of time for cooperation was unlawful, but this was overruled by
> > the Court en banc. So the issue has been raised. jks
> >
>
>One of the ways I've spent my idle hours for many years is daydreaming
>of things "The Left" might do if/when it came into existence once more.
>One of those daydreams involved ways such a mass movement could make
>life personally unpleasant for DAs who engaged in plea-bargaining.
>
>Carrol