Conservative65
Gold Member
- Oct 14, 2014
- 26,127
- 2,208
Can we apply that same line of thinking to other rights? You get legal counsel after being arrested, but slap a million dollar tax on his services? You can still buy pen and paper, but you need to take a class and pay huge fees to have them? You can still keep from testifying against yourself, but only if you pay the special tax and some bureaucrat signs off on it, and he doesn't have to?
We do in a manner of speaking. Everyone is "entitled" to a jury trial of his/her peers. 90% of those incarcerated in our for profit prison system never get a trial at all. Fact is, the penal system would collapse under its own weight if every accused got a trial. But the lie sure sounds nice.
How many of that 90% plead guilty under a plea deal in order that they get a lesser sentence knowing that if they went to trial the punishment would be far more. They're going to jail either way. It works out better for them to plead guilty and not have a trial. Does the fact that they don't have an actual trial mean they weren't treated fairly?
Bingo! Yes, we have an alternative path for the uhnsubstantial people, your are correct.
That's why I asked the question of whether or not plea bargaining meant they weren't treated fairly. Someone that goes to jail under a plea bargain that would have gone to jail after a trial is treated more than fair.