Don't get me wrong: it's great. The state should have to jump through a lot of hoops to lock someone up. That's just basic Enlightenment stuff. What concerns me is that American culture apprehends the criminal justice system as a mechanism for determining an individual's "guilt" or "innocence." In the popular discourse, the criminal justice system is seen as broken because this or that guilty defendant got off, or that innocent people might be in prison. There is no popular uproar over the rampant denial of procedural rights to "guilty" defendants because, after all, these rights only exist to protect the innocent... And who knows, if there was more education about why procedural rights are important beyond protecting innocent people (i.e. they provide a check on the reach of the state) then maybe we'd have a public that's a bit more sceptical of state power in other arenas as well.
BTW: thanks for pointing out my idiotic blunder on the percentage, Michael.
-WD