The federal court system has a 95% plus conviction rate

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.hmichaelsteinberg.com/federalcrimes.htm

<snip>What about the innocent person who's indicted - won't a trial bring out the truth?

Ideally that's how it should be but unfortunately, at least in the federal court system, it many times does not go this way. Its almost always the goal of the prosecutor to get the defendant to take a plea bargain. Why? Because it saves the prosecutor, time and the government, money.

The prosecutorial system is actually engineered to motivate a criminal defendant into taking a plea bargain by offering points off for cooperating. It is well known that a criminal defendant, who chooses to take the case to trial, risks receiving a much stiffer prison sentence as opposed to taking a plea bargain. It gets easier to see why the prosecutors are beating Vegas odds with a 95% plus federal conviction rate.

[w4rma]

1. Maybe prosecutors don't bring cases to court that they don't think that they can win. (nt)

[amdezurik]

2. you just made the OP's case but don't know it

just "winning" a case is not supposed to be the goal. Winning the RIGHT case should be. For a lesson in that please visit the Innocence Project...

[NNN0LHI]

3. I think that usually is the case

I have no problem with that. Even if they know someone is guilty there is no sense in trying them without a good chance of conviction with double jeopardy and all.

Don

[madokie]

4. Listening to Fitz its pretty obvious as to why that is too

Them boys cross their t's and dot their i's. They seem to do the leg work thats required to get the bad guys and don't seem to care who or what they are. My guess is in this next few years there will be many a head roll. As there should be.

[Occam Bandage]

5. Federal prosecutors don't like wasting their time with cases they don't think are a lock.

If it starts to look like the defendant is innocent, you'd be an absolute idiot to go to court and lose.

[NNN0LHI]

6. Take a few dead losers in front of the same federal judge and the prosecutor will be in the slammer

As well it should be.

Don