The American Justice System

The American legal system is a human meat grinder incapable of giving every accused person a fair and speedy trial. This is why over 90% of criminal cases are never tried in court, the defendants electing to plead guilty for fear of stiffer sentences if they go to court. If every accused person demanded a trial, the legal system would grind to a halt. There would not be enough judges, lawyers, and courtrooms to try the deluge of cases. It would be forced to eliminate our constitutional rights to a trial of our peers, or to eliminate superfluous laws.

If you’d like to learn more about my books, click here: https://philwbooks.com/books/
If you’d like to connect with me on social media, click here: https://philwbooks.com/bio/

Sources
Michelle Alexander, “Go to Trial: Crash the Justice System,” The New York Times (March 2012), http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/11/opinion/sunday/go-to-trial-crash-the-justice-system.html?_r=0.
Nicole Flatow, “The United States Has the Largest Prison Population in the World—And It’s Growing,” Think Progress (September 2014), http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/09/17/3568232/the-united-states-had-even-more-prisoners-in-2013/.
Kathleen Miles, “Just How Much the War on Drugs Impacts our Overcrowded Prisons, In One Chart,” The Huffington Post (March 2014), http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/10/war-on-drugs-prisons-infographic_n_4914884.html.
Neil Swan, “Exploring the Role of Child Abuse in Later Drug Abuse,” National Institute on Drug Abuse (July 1998), http://archives.drugabuse.gov/NIDA_Notes/NNVol13N2/exploring.html.
Steve Reilly, “Tens of Thousands of Rape Kits Go Untested across USA,” USA TODAY (July 2015), http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/07/16/untested-rape-kits-evidence-across-usa/29902199/.
Tyler Kingkade, “Prosecutors Rarely Bring Charges in College Rape Cases,” The Huffington Post (June 2014), http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/17/college-rape-prosecutors-press-charges_n_5500432.html.
“Crime in the United States, 2011,” FBI (2011), https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2011/crime-in-the-u.s.-2011/police-employee-data.
Kathianne Boniello, “City Says Cops Had No Duty to Protect Subway Hero Who Subdued Killer,” New York Post (January 2013), http://nypost.com/2013/01/27/city-says-cops-had-no-duty-to-protect-subway-hero-who-subdued-killer/.
“Warren v. District of Columbia,” Wikipedia (2016), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_v._District_of_Columbia.