Why Innocent People Plead Guilty

Why Innocent People Plead Guilty

Jed S. Rakoff (via NextDraft:

At the federal level, Congress imposed mandatory minimum sentences for narcotics offenses, gun offenses, child pornography offenses, and much else besides. Sometimes, moreover, these mandatory sentences were required to be imposed consecutively. For example, federal law prescribes a mandatory minimum of ten years’ imprisonment, and a maximum of life imprisonment, for participating in a conspiracy that distributes five kilograms or more of cocaine. But if the use of a weapon is involved in the conspiracy, the defendant, even if she had a low-level role in the conspiracy, must be sentenced to a mandatory minimum of fifteen years’ imprisonment, i.e., ten years on the drug count and five years on the weapons count. And if two weapons are involved, the mandatory minimum rises to forty years, i.e., ten years on the drug count, five years on the first weapons count, and twenty-five years on the second weapons count—all of these sentences being mandatory, with the judge having no power to reduce them.

Meanwhile, Missouri voters didn’t think twice about approving a constitutional amendment that allows “previous allegations of criminal acts to be used against people facing sex-related charges involving victims under 18 years old.

The measure, which to me essentially makes it easier for a jury to convict someone without evidence, reportedly had no organized opposition ahead of the election.