

DNA exonerations: How many more are innocent? - cwan
http://reason.com/archives/2010/04/29/how-many-more-are-innocent

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jrockway
A better question is, how many people get fair trials? The answer is "not very
many", because the system is stacked against justice. Seems like even the most
minor crimes carry sentences like 10-20 years. When confronted with this
possibility, most people will opt to plead guilty for a shorter sentence. But,
of course, a condition of pleading guilty is that you agree to never appeal.
So there are many innocent people in prison for this reason.

(I'm pretty sure that the death penalty only exists to get people to take plea
bargains. Life in prison seems better than being tied to a chair and being
injected with drugs that make your lungs stop working.)

Even better is that the government often sizes your assets _before_ trial, so
you can't even hire a good defense lawyer.

I'm pretty sure that when the Framers were writing the Constitution, this is
not what they had in mind. I'm surprised there's anyone that's _not_ in
prison, actually.

