And if more cases went to jury, might not the first part of this change because the second part would come more into play? One thing seems certain, it would be impossible to put away as many people as we do if everyone went to jury trial. The system would collapse under its own weight. <<<<<>>>>>
as i pointed out in my previous post on above matter, no more than 10% of criminal cases go to trial and about 50% of defendants opt for judge-heard proceedings...
so 90% of cases are plea-bargained which is a prosecutor controlled process, they dispose of cases quickly, avoiding long, drawn-out time-consuming and costly trials (btw: jury trials tend to be longer, costlier, and involve more people than judge-heard trials), they eliminate risk of losing cases, and they build up 'election-worthy' conviction records...
moreover, in some (many?) cases, prosecutors have obtained evidence illegally, they want to protect informants by keeping them off the witness stand, and/or they actual physical evidence against a defendant is flimsy to none...
contrary to conventional wisdom, plea bargaining - which has been around since so-called progressive era a century ago - did not develop in response to heavy case loads and evidence indicates that it is not primarily used for that purpose today...however, given existing structure of courts and limited number of judges, legal systems in most states would quickly break down if even half the criminal defendants pleaded not guilty and demanded a jury trial...at present, many defendants are convinced that they will be in for a rough time if they do not cooperate and plead guilty rather than have their cases go to trial...
as for defense attorneys, plea bargaining offers (among other things, including going to trial with losing case and/or appearing to provide no service to their clients) them opportunity to handle more clients and make more money... mh
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