08/01/2016
The harsh realities of our justice system.
“I work as an investigator for the Legal Aid Society. We provide legal defense to people who can’t afford it. I studied law in college, but I’m learning that the system doesn’t match up to what we were taught. According to theory, the defendant should always have the advantage. Our clients are supposed to be innocent until proven guilty. The burden of proof lies with the prosecutor. But that’s only in theory. In reality, the District Attorneys bend the rules of the system to gain maximum leverage. They don’t care about justice-- well, I’m sure there are some that do-- but the ones I’ve seen only care about winning. It’s an elected position, so they want to show voters that they are ‘tough on crime.’ And that requires higher incarceration rates. So they are incentivized to convict as many people as possible. One of their favorite weapons is to overcharge. They’ll charge a defendant with ten things. Nine of them would easily get thrown out in court, but the client just can’t risk it. So they’ll plead guilty to the one charge that even remotely applies to the case. We’re representing one client who passed out on the subway. It’s a simple public intoxication charge. But his beer bottle fell off his seat and broke, so they charged him with possession of a weapon. They know it’s ridiculous. But they know he’ll never go to trial with that charge on the table. So they’ll get their conviction. And that’s all that matters.”
