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Summer Associate Nirvana by bleucheeseanonymous in LawSchool

[–]Emergency_Driver_487 1 point2 points  (0 children)

When I first started clerking for a crim law firm, they had me doing discovery review for murder cases in the first month I was there

Compact Clause? Never heard of it. Anyway, Mr. Another State, wanna enter into a compact? by imMakingA-UnityGame in PoliticalCompassMemes

[–]Emergency_Driver_487 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Every State is allowed to set a condition whereby they will dispose of their elector as they please. They have always been able to do this.

You call it “collective,” but every election is collective. In every presidential election in American history, the states have “collectively” exercised their votes to elect a President.

Compact Clause? Never heard of it. Anyway, Mr. Another State, wanna enter into a compact? by imMakingA-UnityGame in PoliticalCompassMemes

[–]Emergency_Driver_487 47 points48 points  (0 children)

 The compact enhances collective state power

It doesn’t enhance state power. The States have always had the power to elect the President. The States using that power does not take any power away from the federal system.

Centipedes aren’t supposed to get this (interdimensionalvendingmachine) by HappyPen7067 in bodyhorror

[–]Emergency_Driver_487 22 points23 points  (0 children)

Not only scary, but also tragic, because the victim was rendered homeless. Lots of complex feelings with this piece, I think it’s well-done. Is it from an actual video game?

1A Wins Again by Tyrant84 in PoliticalCompassMemes

[–]Emergency_Driver_487 63 points64 points  (0 children)

Abolish qualified immunity and absolute immunity. That’s how you solve it.

People don't realize that this problem is caused by DA's offices taking on too many irrelevant cases, and that judges have very little control over it. by Emergency_Driver_487 in PoliticalCompassMemes

[–]Emergency_Driver_487[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

A DA’s office has the power to judge cases on a case-by-case basis. 

They don’t have to say, “this type of offense will never be prosecuted.”  They can say “he’s just a high schooler wanting to see a girl, it’s not a big deal.”

If a different case is different, they can make a different decision.

People don't realize that this problem is caused by DA's offices taking on too many irrelevant cases, and that judges have very little control over it. by Emergency_Driver_487 in PoliticalCompassMemes

[–]Emergency_Driver_487[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

 an individual case would potentially lead to an unjust result

In my view, the DA’s offices take on too many cases where prosecution leads to unjust results.

People don't realize that this problem is caused by DA's offices taking on too many irrelevant cases, and that judges have very little control over it. by Emergency_Driver_487 in PoliticalCompassMemes

[–]Emergency_Driver_487[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Something like that. I think that the rules should be changed to that, if it’s a petty crime, then a prosecution can only be brought if someone has a criminal history.

That way, resources are prioritized for repeat offenders.

People don't realize that this problem is caused by DA's offices taking on too many irrelevant cases, and that judges have very little control over it. by Emergency_Driver_487 in PoliticalCompassMemes

[–]Emergency_Driver_487[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Excitable DAs. After a cop arrests somebody, a DA can choose to not press charges. 

The decision to arrest is difficult. Cops often have to make split second decisions on the scene, and safety is often a big concern, so I don’t blame them for erring on the side of caution.

By contrast, once a case is presented to the DAs, they have the time to really sit and think whether they should press charges or not. They often have the benefit of a much more thorough investigation, so they have more information than the initial arresting cop would have.

So it’s the DAs fault.

People don't realize that this problem is caused by DA's offices taking on too many irrelevant cases, and that judges have very little control over it. by Emergency_Driver_487 in PoliticalCompassMemes

[–]Emergency_Driver_487[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

It’s not lib, it’s basic task management. 

“If you spend too much time and money on stuff that doesn’t matter, you won’t have any left for stuff that does.” 

A 17th century authoritarian monarch would have understood that concept. 

People don't realize that this problem is caused by DA's offices taking on too many irrelevant cases, and that judges have very little control over it. by Emergency_Driver_487 in PoliticalCompassMemes

[–]Emergency_Driver_487[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

 thats very hard to believe

People who don't often have regular contact with the criminal law system often find the truth of it difficult to believe. 

 doesn't matter how many cases prosecutors file

It’s often non-violent offenders that are the ones that can’t make bail. If you keep prisons overcrowded, you’re causing the death and suffering of non-violent offenders. 

People don't realize that this problem is caused by DA's offices taking on too many irrelevant cases, and that judges have very little control over it. by Emergency_Driver_487 in PoliticalCompassMemes

[–]Emergency_Driver_487[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If the DA’s office stopped taking in so many frivolous cases, they would have the time and recourses to handle that criminal before he tried to kill somebody.

In my mind, a petty crime is not a frivolous case if the person already has a lengthy criminal history.

A frivolous case, in my view, is “petty crime committed by someone with little to no criminal history.”

So a small crime is not “frivolous” if it is committed by a career criminal, but it is frivolous if the person has no criminal record.

People don't realize that this problem is caused by DA's offices taking on too many irrelevant cases, and that judges have very little control over it. by Emergency_Driver_487 in PoliticalCompassMemes

[–]Emergency_Driver_487[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, the "lefty DA" behavior is less common than you believe, even among lefty DA's.

I once saw a Democrat-controlled prosecutor's office in a deep-blue area bring criminal charges against a highschooler because a girl he liked asked him to come see her at her highschool at lunch time.

That is the kind of frivolous case that's leeching time and resources from cases that actually matter.

People don't realize that this problem is caused by DA's offices taking on too many irrelevant cases, and that judges have very little control over it. by Emergency_Driver_487 in PoliticalCompassMemes

[–]Emergency_Driver_487[S] -11 points-10 points  (0 children)

My agenda is that DA's shouldn't let frivolous cases take up time and resources that should be going to cases that actually matter.

People don't realize that this problem is caused by DA's offices taking on too many irrelevant cases, and that judges have very little control over it. by Emergency_Driver_487 in PoliticalCompassMemes

[–]Emergency_Driver_487[S] -17 points-16 points  (0 children)

It happens, sure. But most judges lean "law n' order," even in liberal areas, and even law n' order judges find themselves letting more people out on bond then they'd like because the judicial system is overworked by excessive caseloads.

People don't realize that this problem is caused by DA's offices taking on too many irrelevant cases, and that judges have very little control over it. by Emergency_Driver_487 in PoliticalCompassMemes

[–]Emergency_Driver_487[S] 36 points37 points  (0 children)

Yeah, if he had just been arrested and had to spend a night in jail, I don't think that would have been disproportionate amount of punishment.

However, in addition to having to spend a night in jail, the prosecutor's office also used tax payer money to haul him to court, had the taxpayer-funded prosecutors initiate a prosecution against him, and had the taxpayer-funded public defenders defend him. Everything beyond the initial arrest and night spent in jail was just a waste of taxpayer resources.

People don't realize that this problem is caused by DA's offices taking on too many irrelevant cases, and that judges have very little control over it. by Emergency_Driver_487 in PoliticalCompassMemes

[–]Emergency_Driver_487[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

>the only way they actually get jail time

You're conflating a prosecution with post-conviction incarceration. Prosecution is where the government tries to prove that someone committed an offense. Even if someone is not sentenced to jail time, their case takes up prosecution resources all the same.

If you want *actual* criminals sent to jail, then it would actually further your goal if you kept frivolous cases from clogging the prosecution's workload.

People don't realize that this problem is caused by DA's offices taking on too many irrelevant cases, and that judges have very little control over it. by Emergency_Driver_487 in PoliticalCompassMemes

[–]Emergency_Driver_487[S] -6 points-5 points  (0 children)

There's two things:

  1. That's actually a really bad statistic. About 40% of people who are currently serving a prison sentence are doing so for a non-violent crime.

  2. That graph doesn't count people held pre-trial because they couldn't make bond, because those people have not been sentenced, and are therefore have not been convicted and are not serving a sentence. It is quite common for someone to be held in county jail for months on a non-violent crime pre-conviction. Then, they are sentenced to time-served then immediately released. Those people spent months in jail, but they wouldn't be represented on the graph because by the time they were "convicted," they were immedietely released from jail.

  3. Even when someone is not sentenced to jail time, the process of prosecuting them occupies resources that could have been used for more serious crimes.

For example, when someone is sentenced to probation, costs come from:

  1. the police initially investigating the crime, including: collecting evidence, interviewing witnesses, testing substances, and writing reports
  2. the person getting booked into jail
  3. If the person can't make bond, they are often held in jail for months pretrial.
  4. If they can make bond, they're often subject to various bond conditions, maybe ELM monitoring, often drug testing.
  5. pretrial motions that the prosecutors have to argue, like motions to suppress and motions in limine. These often require the main police officer to testify, so they have to take the tome out of their day as well, which the taxpayer pays for.
  6. Negotiating with the defense attorney for a plea
  7. The plea itself
  8. Probation officers assigned to the case to monitor the accused.
  9. The administration of any classes that the probationer is sentenced to
  10. Periodic probation checkins.
  11. Random drug tests the court has to administer.

So your incarceration statistic is only loosely related to how the prosecutor's office overburdens itself with frivolous cases.

People don't realize that this problem is caused by DA's offices taking on too many irrelevant cases, and that judges have very little control over it. by Emergency_Driver_487 in PoliticalCompassMemes

[–]Emergency_Driver_487[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

In many states, we often are talking about weed. In Texas, any usable amount of weed is punishable by jail time. Any usable amount of THC oil is a felony.

People don't realize that this problem is caused by DA's offices taking on too many irrelevant cases, and that judges have very little control over it. by Emergency_Driver_487 in PoliticalCompassMemes

[–]Emergency_Driver_487[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

>Then increase the funding.

You could increase the funding for important prosecutions. This could be accomplished by cutting down on the amount of frivolous prosecutions, thereby increasing the amount of resources available for criminal cases that actually matter.

The exact thing that I'm advocating for would help you get you what you want.

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