>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.
This is the key (non-lawyer) advice I would give to anyone enmeshed in the US legal system on a nonpolitical charge--don't plead out, the deals only get better as you get closer and closer to trial. Yes, it's like playing chicken, but the last thing they want to do is actually try you. (Of course, if it's a political charge, they may want to try you, so demand a jury trial.)
Sami Al-Arian, the University of South Florida engineering professor who was charged with aiding terrorism and basically portrayed by the prosecution as the mastermind of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, just got found not guilty on a bunch of charges and the jury was hung on several more. This was a show trial of massive proportions. They flew in relatives of Israeli suicide bombing victims to testify. They had wiretapping records going back several years. This was their big chance to 'fight terrorism.' On all the serious charges he was found not guilty, however.
The prosecution, burned by this high-profile failure in the terror war, threatened to retry him on the remaining charges. While threatening him with another trial, they offered him a deal, which, unfortunately, he accepted, on the theory (according to the paper) that he would probably get time served and then get deported. (He'll be deported no matter what he does.) The judge just gave him an additional 3 years, I think it was. Outrageous. But once you plead guilty to something, you're screwed. I'm sure, in view of his family, in view of the hell they've been through for the last 5 years, he just wanted to get it over with and not do another trial. He's been the only pre-trial detainee at Coleman for over a year, held in isolation. But once you plead guilty to something, you forfeit any protection you had. (But I'm not a lawyer and this is not legal advice. You can tell because if I were a lawyer, I'd probably be telling you to take the deal. Cuz, I'd have other clients with worse problems than you. And I'd be really pressed for time. And it's the way things are done. Etc., etc.)
Jenny Brown