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Palanawt t1_j8nofr7 wrote

Reply to comment by Viper_JB in Lamar Johnson freed 28 years after wrongful murder conviction by CommanderMcBragg

Over 95% of prisoners in the US plead guilty. These prosecutors will trump up the charges so you're facing hundreds of years and then offer you a plea deal for like 5yrs. The public defender that has a dozen other cases to deal with that morning and doesn't know you from Adam is always gonna push you to take that deal. We have LOTS of innocent people in prison. And like others have said, it's a feature, not a bug.

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Taysir385 t1_j8o5n1w wrote

> These prosecutors will trump up the charges so you're facing hundreds of years and then offer you a plea deal for like 5yrs.

Friend of mine was once facing eight life sentences without parole. Accepted a plea bargain for time served. Which was admittedly like six months because he couldn't afford the million dollar bail, but that's not all that much better.

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Palanawt t1_j8ocear wrote

Jeez that's disgusting. We fail so hard at being decent humans in this country.

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Viper_JB t1_j8nqitg wrote

It's incredibly fucked up, guess the result of some many politicians promising to be though on crime. If you win a case like this does the state cover your legal costs?

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needabiggerhammer t1_j8o370c wrote

Nope. You are out the money.

And until last year your options to sue were limited (SCOTUS fixed that a bit).

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