July 13th, 2010

Poet Percy Shelley wrote, “The breath of accusation kills an innocent name, and leaves for lame acquittal the poor life, which is a mask without it.” My thoughts are once again drawn to my brother and the pain he is going through. I regret ever persuading him to take a plea. After much research I’ve come to realize that plea bargaining has come to dominate the administration of justice in America. According to one legal scholar, “Every two seconds during a typical workday, a criminal case is disposed of in an American courtroom by way of a guilty plea.” The attorney we hired for my brother never told us that he was negotiating a plea. My brother proclaimed his innocence, but they didn’t want to hear it. A plea is easier than a trial. I think the practice should be abolished. Because any person who is accused of violating the criminal law can lose his liberty, and perhaps even his life depending on the offense and prescribed penalty, the Framers of the Constitution took pains to put explicit limits on the awesome powers of the government. The Bill of Rights explicitly guarantees several safeguards to the accused, including the right to be informed of the charges, the right not to be compelled to incriminate oneself, the right to a speedy and public trial, the right to an impartial jury trial in the state and district where the offense allegedly took place, the right to cross-examine the state’s witnesses, the right to call witnesses on one’s own behalf, and the right to the assistance of counsel. Instead of those things my brother, family, and myself were threatened and intimidated into taking a plea. We were threatened with manufactured evidence and tax audits and much more. His accuser knew the evidence was manufactured and went along with it. Not that should be a crime! Taking a plea?it’s what’s expected anymore. Fewer than 10 percent of the criminal cases brought by the federal government each year are actually tried before juries with all the accompany procedural safeguards. More than 90 percent of the criminal cases in America are never tried, much less proven, to juries. Plea bargaining unquestionably alleviates the workload of judges, prosecutors, and defense lawyers. But is it proper for a government that is constitutionally required to respect the right to trial by jury to use its charging and sentencing powers to pressure an individual to waive that right? There is no doubt that government officials deliberately use their power to pressure people who have been accused of a crime, and who are presumed innocent, to confess their guilt and waive their right to a formal trial. All of it is dishonest and wrong. Give me the days when Judge Roy Bean was holding court. Bean let you know exactly where you stood. He didn’t play games and pretend he was anything but the scoundrel he was. “Hang em first, and then we’ll try them,” he once said. Billy the Kid was reeking havoc on this day in 1878. Deputy Long John Long had a warrant to serve on Billy the Kid but when Long John found the Kid in San Patricio he was with nine other of McSween’s Regulators. The Regulators killed Long John’s Horse, but Long John scampered safely away. Long John Long is the guy who set fire to the McSween House at the end of the siege on July 19th.