Ken White: Yes, it does corrupt justice, but not (just, or even) because they’re “rats.”
Yes. Trump is wrong about why flipping is bad, but he's not wrong about flipping is bad. Prosecutors have far too much power, with too little accountability. It's a travesty of the justice system. https://t.co/2p0anto9d5
— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) August 24, 2018
So at what point does the State (A) Paying Informants and (B) Soliciting Testimony through Offers of Leniency become the State manufacturing crimes out of whole cloth? The DA can “Get a Grand Jury to Indict a Ham Sandwich” as the saying goes…
The entire “Plea Bargain Judicial System” has always raised my suspicions. If we have also morphed into a system where the State can “Punish through the Process” without the intent of every having a speedy resolution and a fair trial… Troubling times.
I don’t mind flipping per se, but I mind it very much indeed when the flipped witness is the key to the case.
For example, if there is hard evidence corroborating the testimony, that’s fine. If there isn’t, and the witness is avoiding prison time via testifying, that’s another matter entirely. The witness has a massive motive (akin to a gun to his head) to say whatever he thinks the prosecutor wants to hear. The risk to justice in this is not that the witness sings in exchange for a deal, but that he makes stuff up (composes, rather than sings).
All of the above also assumes a prosecutor with total integrity. If the prosecutor is even a little shady, it is vastly worse.
In a real world example, it’s often reported that Cohen pleaded to Trump ordering him to violate federal election laws (side note: even if true, what Cohen claims was done is probably not an actual crime, because the source of the funds was the Trump). He didn’t, he plead that a “candidate for federal office” did it. I suspect he’s composing a bit, and used the weasel wording to avoid legal liability for falsely accusing Trump.
However, the Trump issue is minor; there are innocent people going to prison all over America because of prosecutorial misconduct. It’s time to fix that.
“The witness has a massive motive (akin to a gun to his head) to say whatever he thinks the prosecutor wants to hear. The risk to justice in this is not that the witness sings in exchange for a deal, but that he makes stuff up (composes, rather than sings). ”
Funny thing about that…a lot of people say this is why torture doesn’t work…the person being tortured will say anything to stop the pain.
Many of those people saying that are Lefties.
And torture is a whole lot worse than looking at jail time in a Federal white collar pen.
Yet now we see Lefties screaming that what people are saying under duress is proof positive Trump should be impeached.
I wonder if lefties ever listen to themselves?
A modest proposal: The loser of a presidential election is immediately appointed independent counsel with plenary authority to investigate and prosecute anyone he likes until the next president is inaugurated. The catch is that if he is caught leaking to a reporter even once he spends the rest of his life in solitary confinement.
Just to repeat myself; this is how we got Trump. Overcharging is an ugly thing, and to be honest, the GOP has supported it for too long. But they’ll do nothing about it, because they believe it is effective for crime fighting. Actually, it just makes for lazy prosecutors and destroys trust in our legal system.
Using overcharging to flip witnesses sounds great when it seems like some lieutenant flipped for a drug lord or mob boss. But here’s the thing, if we know the drug lord or mob boss is criminal; why is it that we need to flip a lieutenant? Well now, the mob boss is anybody daring to run for public office as a Republican. And the State of New York has declared open season on Republican campaign staffers. You can expect California and Illinois to join ranks before the GOP states realize the new game is a thing.