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Comment by dylan604 | Hacker News Reader

So beyond the prosecutor, we have to start questioning judges and juries. If the prosecutor so strongly feels that a weak case has a chance of getting a conviction, then what's really wrong here: the prosecutor or the judge/jury part of the system? Prosecutors are famous for only bring cases to trial they feel they can win. That sense normally comes from their experience directly or reading of previous trials.

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The prosecutor is trying to scare this woman into accepting a plea deal. Couple thousand dollars and 6 months probation. Maybe they eventually drop the case, but she’s going to face much more than that in travel and legal costs. No matter what happens here, this woman is, on some level, fucked with no recourse. And the people responsible for it are the ones who should be protecting her from the effects of the identity theft in the first place.

It’s insane that a prosecutor can do this and not be sued for those damages.

The breadth of prosecutorial immunity is one of those things that reveals how broken the American system is.

Having had the opportunity to participate and observe the jury system, there is no way I'd ever take a jury trial for a criminal matter. The judge started off the trial by informing the jury pool that despite the state lacking any evidence, we'd need to attest we could find the defendant guilty. Jurors follow the instructions given to them by judges, that is all.

I have heard from random lawyers that if the facts are in your favor, get a bench trial, if you are actually guilty, you can maybe sway a jury.

We don't have juries because they are smarter or more fair or more just on average than a judge. We have juries entirely due to the concept of jury nullification. It's a formalization of the concept the founders sometimes expressed where "Yes I did it, but that doesn't mean I should go to jail" is an intended outcome. It's explicitly that Justice isn't the same as "follow the letter of the law".

>then what's really wrong here: the prosecutor or the judge/jury part of the system?

Arkansas is one of the least educated states in the US and one of the poorest. So, yea, there are a lot of systemic issues there.

> If the prosecutor so strongly feels that a weak case has a chance of getting a conviction

Who says that's the case? US courts are overloaded and public defenders are massively overloaded.

Most people can't afford to hire a good lawyer, and a (let's say) 10% chance of years in prison isn't worth gambling versus a plea deal to them. Prosecutors know this, file massive scary charges, and motivate people to settle regardless of innocence or guilt.

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