Why aren't Holmes and the other guy in jail. I mean there are people in jail for smoking pot and these guys did massive fraud and they are free.
I hope they don't just give them some fine. Makes the judicial system look bad.
I hope they don't just give them some fine. Makes the judicial system look bad.
(Relatively few people are at this point in jail for smoking pot, for whatever that's worth to you).
Arrest rates are way higher though.
Pre-trial detention is a thing too, of course. They can afford bail, but many innocent people who literally did not do the crime they're accused of still sit in jail for months/years waiting for a trial.
I think directionally most people on HN already agree with you about cash bail. I certainly believe it should be done away with.
https://i.imgur.com/whWAVs3.jpg
The strong majority of all prisoners are in for violent crime and property crime. Public order offenses (which includes eg weapons and DUIs) are nearly as large as all drug offenses.
There are about 60% as many people in state prisons for just burglary, as all drug offenses.
In 2015, only 3.4% of people in state prisons were in for drug possesion of any type. Marijuana would be a small subset of that figure.
It's not. It might seem to be the case to you, me, and others with some understanding of the legal system in the United States, but when we consider the background knowledge of the legal system required to understand how cases are adjudicated, this is objectively quite generally not obvious.
> (Relatively few people are at this point in jail for smoking pot, for whatever that's worth to you).
Compared to what? If Virginia is any indication of trends among non-decriminalized or non-legalized states, it's relatively high. (I'm nitpicking, of course: there's a substantial difference between jail and prison; I'm assuming your definition—innocently, mind you—does not distinguish between the two.) https://ww.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/n...
What's obvious is that a complicated white-collar fraud case is harder to prosecute than a trivial drug possession case. You don't need to know anything about the criminal justice system to grasp that.
Please. One day this system will collapse on itself.
The poor have a shitty public defender who advises them to plead guilty even if they aren't, and if they committed a crime it's likely something simple and straightforward to explain and prove.
The clock has run out, but my lawyer advises against against asking for damages. Looking at the law, it should be a slam-dunk deal, but apparently the district judge is sufficiently corrupt not to be trusted.
It's not my job to school the landlord to be honest, and since there are no consequences for bad behaviour they will be dishonest and will continue to cheat students and other out-of-towners out of what is rightfully theirs. That, friends, is the reality in the US: groups of the population have good reason to believe that the legal system is not working for them.
Recently, a political TV program commented on the Brazilian election - on one side is a fascist, on the other a representative of party so corrupt that it's unelectable. The situation is approaching a civil war. In the US it's not quite as bad as in Brazil, but it's getting there.
The case itself, hit or miss, but 50% > 0%.
My big lesson from taking landlords to court is that the security deposit is a negotiation.
How much are you willing to bet? The demand letter is in the mail, if the money doesn't show up next Friday the matter will end up at the qadi's.
Landlords expect you to come at them for the deposit. If you don't, it's a 13th month rent. The serious renters just treat the deposit as their 12th month rent, but if you didn't do that, or care about your reference, you sue for it.
IANAL let alone your L, but at this point, in my 42nd year of life, if I don't get my security deposit back, I drop a buck fifty and put a suit in process, fully expecting the landlord to whine at me and then start the actual negotiation.
I've rented in 5 cities across the US. I have never once had to even ask for my security deposit to be returned. It's just assumed that I would get it back, and I do.
In the cities where I've lived, I've never heard of anyone not getting their security deposit back. I honestly had no idea we were so lucky!
As has been pointed out the more complex the crime the more time and money it takes to prove. Generally wealthier people can commit financial crimes that the poor can not.
Holmes settled the civil case with the SEC I believe so she’s cleared there. She absolutely could be jailed for a long time, but the wheels of justice turn slowly.
The wheels of justice turns slow if you have money.
It is not a punitive measure. Innocent until proven guilty, etc.
So while it's fair to criticise the disparate abilities to post bail, changing the system to incarcerate more rich accused would just be compounding injustice.
https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/bail
Charging an arm and a leg to receive bail doesn't seem like it's serving any useful purpose?