(September 5, 2015 at 9:42 pm)Wyrd of Gawd Wrote:(September 1, 2015 at 1:31 am)Cecelia Wrote: Most of them wouldn't even be able to afford bail so they could be out of jail awaiting for their trial, let alone their appeal.The best way to do that is for the juries to simply stop convicting people.
Long punishments aren't a deterrent for drugs. It's time they legalize and regulate them. Much like we do with cigarettes.
That is not the case though, Wyrd.
http://www.fairtrials.org/press/plea-bar...n-the-usa/
Quote:A report by Human Rights Watch published in December 2013 confirms the central – and often coercive – role that plea bargaining plays in many criminal cases in the USA. The report explores how in drugs cases, defendants are routinely offered plea bargains that conform to minimum mandatory sentencing while being threatened with extraordinarily long sentences should they refuse to plead guilty and instead exercise their right to a trial. The outcome of this practice has been a staggering 97% of US federal convictions resulting in a guilty plea, and a concentration of power in the hands of prosecutors rather than courts.
