<story><title>What does an innocent man have to do to go free? Plead guilty</title><url>https://www.propublica.org/article/what-does-an-innocent-man-have-to-do-alford-plea-guilty</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>superjustice</author><text>I often think there should be a superhero archangel comic character that is a ruthless defender of justice.  I don&amp;#x27;t understand the mentality of prosecutors, nor the judges, public defenders and others who are also complacent in an evil system.&lt;p&gt;I have had three encounters with law enforcement, the first ended in similar fashion to this story.  I was charged with a crime I didn&amp;#x27;t commit which happened to occur on video.&lt;p&gt;After 18-months, and threats of serious felony charges, I refused to accept a plea.  I asked my lawyer if it was illegal to plead guilty to a crime I didn&amp;#x27;t commit and he said it was.&lt;p&gt;The prosecutor then says, &amp;quot;the state moves to drop the case citing lack of evidence&amp;quot;.  Again, the crime (theft) was recorded on videotape and two other guys I didn&amp;#x27;t know clearly stole the items involved.  I won but the court wouldn&amp;#x27;t actually let me win.&lt;p&gt;Another time I was caught in an unfortunate incident where a security guard pushed me into a street.  I was tackled, tasered, later choked, threatened to be killed and then powerslammed head first on concrete by Detective of the Year, Glenn A. Ritchie, of the Broward County Sheriff&amp;#x27;s Office.&lt;p&gt;Ritchie charged me with non-violent misdemeanors and then a day later, alleged felonies in a contradictory and clearly false 2nd police report.  I spent 34-days in jail until the charges were non-filed but not until the felony was refiled as a misdemeanor, sent to the wrong address, resulting in a still standing capias warrant for my arrest.&lt;p&gt;The system is flawed.  People who work in the courts, especially in major cities, are not to be celebreated but derided.  It&amp;#x27;s an insane system of high bails, boilerplate plea deals and cold indifference.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Clubber</author><text>Public defender offices are funded by the state and they are terribly under funded.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.abajournal.com&amp;#x2F;magazine&amp;#x2F;article&amp;#x2F;the_gideon_revolution&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.abajournal.com&amp;#x2F;magazine&amp;#x2F;article&amp;#x2F;the_gideon_revolu...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Because not much political upside to helping criminal defendants exists, many jurisdictions end up with a perennial funding problem ... In both cases, the committee heard about extreme funding shortfalls, excessive caseloads and insufficient pay.&lt;p&gt;After years of cuts, his budget was down from $9 million to about $6 million, and he had just eight investigators for 21,000 cases per year.&lt;p&gt;This matters because the majority of defendants—a 2014 study put it at 80 percent—use some kind of indigent defense. That means most Americans charged with a crime are at risk of bad outcomes partly caused by the quality of representation that they can afford.&lt;/i&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>What does an innocent man have to do to go free? Plead guilty</title><url>https://www.propublica.org/article/what-does-an-innocent-man-have-to-do-alford-plea-guilty</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>superjustice</author><text>I often think there should be a superhero archangel comic character that is a ruthless defender of justice.  I don&amp;#x27;t understand the mentality of prosecutors, nor the judges, public defenders and others who are also complacent in an evil system.&lt;p&gt;I have had three encounters with law enforcement, the first ended in similar fashion to this story.  I was charged with a crime I didn&amp;#x27;t commit which happened to occur on video.&lt;p&gt;After 18-months, and threats of serious felony charges, I refused to accept a plea.  I asked my lawyer if it was illegal to plead guilty to a crime I didn&amp;#x27;t commit and he said it was.&lt;p&gt;The prosecutor then says, &amp;quot;the state moves to drop the case citing lack of evidence&amp;quot;.  Again, the crime (theft) was recorded on videotape and two other guys I didn&amp;#x27;t know clearly stole the items involved.  I won but the court wouldn&amp;#x27;t actually let me win.&lt;p&gt;Another time I was caught in an unfortunate incident where a security guard pushed me into a street.  I was tackled, tasered, later choked, threatened to be killed and then powerslammed head first on concrete by Detective of the Year, Glenn A. Ritchie, of the Broward County Sheriff&amp;#x27;s Office.&lt;p&gt;Ritchie charged me with non-violent misdemeanors and then a day later, alleged felonies in a contradictory and clearly false 2nd police report.  I spent 34-days in jail until the charges were non-filed but not until the felony was refiled as a misdemeanor, sent to the wrong address, resulting in a still standing capias warrant for my arrest.&lt;p&gt;The system is flawed.  People who work in the courts, especially in major cities, are not to be celebreated but derided.  It&amp;#x27;s an insane system of high bails, boilerplate plea deals and cold indifference.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>epmaybe</author><text>A mentor of mine who used to work for a government agency once told me something that I hadn&amp;#x27;t really appreciated until recently. To paraphrase, sometimes the best way to change a system that is flawed is to work from within. It&amp;#x27;s harder, sure, since it takes time to get enough power to make effective change, but it&amp;#x27;s an idea nonetheless.</text></comment>