Pleading guilty to crimes they may not have committed because theyre the theyre railroaded by Police Officers who give them false information or horrors confessions or because theyre afraid of facing you know harsh mandatory minimum sentences and believe that you know the best chance is to just take a plea every joe you dont know anything about you know the prison politics in county jail you dont know anything so they put you there with these people in this is how they force you to take deals the u. S. Justice system just like any Justice System in the world a system where 95 percent of the cases are resolved by plea bargain you know its no longer trial system its a plea bargain system the whole purpose of plea bargains from the perspective of a prosecutor raises his conviction rate so prosecutors typically have a high 90 percent. Conviction rates including those plea bargains. Because of course from a legal standpoint we know that nobody would ever plead guilty to something they didnt
Correctional institutions throughout the United States people think that you know you have a right to a trial and everybody goes to trial and theres the good prosecutor the and the defense attorney and they battle it out that i think the way it works the way it works is the prosecutors stack up the charges on you and force you to plead guilty to a lesser charge to keep from doing life or double life or triple life people dont get trials what they get is a deal people suggest that anywhere between you know 310 and 15 percent of people behind bars could be innocent of the crimes for which they were charged Michelle Alexander is a civil rights lawyer stanford law professor and the author of the new jim crow one of the most highly acclaimed studies americas criminal Justice System the reality is that thousands of people. Every year and i did states wind up pleading guilty to crimes they may not have committed because theyre either or railroaded by Police Officers who give them false inform
A cell in isolation no contact with other juveniles only counselors one hour out for recreation and while they might not be able to introduce an alternate suspect demanded his lawyer not down every argument the prosecution could make. The prosecutor said those could not have seen his mothers body through the back window of the house the sons reflection in the glass and the furniture would have blocked his view his defense was the crime scene pictures were taken on a much sunnier day the prosecution claimed all the bloody footprints in the house matched his shoes this defense says his fingerprints were not found anywhere in the time scene there was no evidence that he wiped anything down i made any attempt to cover his tracks because bruce had nothing to hide the prosecution called Robert Hughes who claimed he was confessed in the 7000 model of county chair and the defense compared Robert Hughes to a used car salesman who wasnt to be trusted. Then one day they wrap their keys on the doo
Get trials what they get is a deal people suggest that anywhere between you know 3 years 10 and 15 percent of people behind bars could be innocent of the crimes for which they were charged Michelle Alexander is a civil rights lawyer stanford law professor and the author of the new jim crow one of the most highly acclaimed studies americas criminal Justice System the reality is that thousands of people. Every year and i had it states wind up pleading guilty to crimes they may not have committed because theyre the theyre railroaded by Police Officers who give them false information or horrors confessions or because theyre afraid of facing you know harsh mandatory minimum sentences and believe that you know the best chance is to just take a plea using average joe you dont know anything about. You know the president the politics in county jail you dont know anything so they put you there with these people in this is how they force you to take deals the u. S. Justice system just like any Ju
To being the leader of the world again. James and spring valley, new york. Mechanicsburg, pennsylvania. A supporter of President Trump. This is greg. Ceo of theident and center for american progress. Want to welcome you to this conversation. For we get started, i want to do a quick piece of housekeeping. Ate captioning is available. Merican progress. Org we have a tremendous conversation. Governor gavin newsom. I will get into introductions ater but i want to provides context. On the Democratic National convention, it is only fitting that we take time to discuss how we can correct course. The Trump Administrations response to the pandemic, to black lives matter, and their dangerous and reckless suppression of our democratic framework has made it abundantly clear that right now under this administration, we are on the wrong path. We are not just on the wrong path, we are heading backward. Dangerously backward. That is why this conversation is so important. We want to make sure that we a