Monday Map: The Tangled Web

Published May 04, 2009 @ 09:26AM PT

We've got a different kind of map this week - a flowchart of the American criminal justice system and the tangled paths defendants can take to jail or to freedom. If the chart above is too small to read, click on the image or here to see a bigger version on wikipedia.

Millions of defendants meander through this system each year, and their cases can follow varied paths - they can plead guilty, they can go to trial. They can enter some kind of arrangement with a judge to continue the case pending treatment, education or a clean record. Guilty pleas and trials come in many shapes and sizes and can lead to a wide range of punishment options. The juvenile system has its own complications, protections and dangers.

It's a complex structure and it varies some from state to state - some of the nuances are absolutely necessary while others are symptoms of a self-perpetuating bureaucracy. Without a lawyer, our criminal justice system is almost impossible to navigate.

I wrote last week about the millions of misdemeanors clogging our courts - as outlined in a new report from the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Many people charged with minor crimes across the country are encouraged by judges to plead guilty without a lawyer, often with the promise of a lighter sentence, to keep the process moving. These defendants are starting in the face of the tangled system above, and many agree to plead in order to avoid the potential pitfalls of a prolonged battle.

Our system could use some simplification to make it more accessible to the millions who come in contact with it. But more importantly - and more likely - we should allocate the indigent defense and public education resources necessary to ensure that those who face the system don't accept an unfair outcome to avoid a complex, confusing and potentially harmful path through the maze.

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Also too are lawyers that take money for representation and then sacrifice their clients. These attorneys will "sell" their counsel claiming their client has rights. The client informs them of evidence, such as video. Then on the court date these attorneys state that the client should plead guilty, multitasking cases and dismissing evidence without review. In Virginia such strategies are accepted by an agency of the Supreme Court of Virginia and the Governor.

2005 police assault

Without a lawyer our criminal justice system is almost impossible to navigate AND with a Virginia lawyer one risks being sacrificed for profit and convenience.

Such failures are excused as "strategy" by such quaint institutions as the Bar which also claims oversight. They also make the claim of some "bad apples" but when pressed to identify the "bad apples" they cannot. This position is not based on one experience.

Posted by jowey styxx on 05/04/2009 @ 02:57PM PT
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In some states it works differently. They charge you will poor or no evidence at all. If the American prison system re-evaluate their prison system, they can release atleast 30%. Then I am talking about rape cases, murder cases without any evidence or poor evidence. When there is doubt, give the case the benefit of the doubts. I know cases from people with poor evidence which not lead into their direction and these suspects get life for something they didn't commit. This cost the tax payer millions of dollars.

Posted by Caresse P on 05/04/2009 @ 05:37PM PT
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most of the judicial monks who staff such a byzantine and deliberately opaque system have lost complete touch with reality

case in point:

http://www.mackinac.org/article.aspx?ID=1273

The government can take the family car (or your car), if they find you with a prostitute; never mind that prostitution shouldn't be illegal, but to fine you and then take your car as a "nuisance", wow...just what the fucj doe the supreme court of shit thinks its doing with our rights?
This country needs to sign and bring into compliance all federal procedures with the Interamerican Convention on Human Rights which has been signed by 25 Latin American nations. I mean, the US, learning from Latin America about democracy. Finally.

And, pray tell, just what sovereignty would be challenged from, for instance, not allowing a government official to make public statements about anybody's character or actions unless that person is given the equal amount of air time to defend themselves; imagine that, fairness.

google "civil asset forfeiture" (since 1985) and you'll see where the money trail goes.

sick sick sick barbaric ways need eradicating

Posted by Nicholas Zakzuk on 05/06/2009 @ 03:33PM PT
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Matt has worked and volunteered in various capacities in criminal justice reform for several years. When he's not blogging, he works as the Online Communications Manager at the Innocence Project. Views expressed here are Matt's, and don't represent the positions of the Innocence Project.