Justice in Jeopardy?

The lead article in today’s New York Times, “Sentencing Shift Gives New Clout to Prosecutors,” describes a developing situation in our judiciary that has grown over the years and now merits serious study: the fact that plea bargains have predominated so much that the right of trial by jury has been effectively overwhelmed.

The reasons cited are many including an overwhelmed system where public defenders can only handle a small fraction of their cases, prosecutors use their plea bargain power to coerce the accused, and judges are constrained by minimum mandatory sentences.

The prosecutors are using these minimum mandatories to threaten the accused with severe jail time unless they plead guilty to a lesser crime. This system creates, in effect, a trial penalty and may encourage innocent people to reluctantly plead guilty to avoid the vagaries of a jury.

The growing use of plea bargains and minimum mandatory sentences have concentrated power in prosecutors so much that they are now widely considered more powerful than judges. This represents a dangerous development because it concentrates power in the enforcement sector, in the state, rather than a legal authority, the judge. And it leaves many of the accused with little-to-no options even if they are innocent. And that’s an intolerable situation for the United States of America.