<story><title>Why America&apos;s prisons are an unconstitutional moral horror (2019)</title><url>https://www.mcall.com/opinion/mc-opi-prison-reform-morality-unconstitutional-20190101-story.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>djoldman</author><text>What would happen if the chief public defender of a large city declared that no public defender would accept any plea deal and that they would be taking everything to trial?&lt;p&gt;The courts would immediately be clogged and prosecutors would be forced to drop many charges because they wouldn&amp;#x27;t be able to have a trial within the mandated 70 days.&lt;p&gt;Prosecutors would be forced to choose the cases that they actually believed important as opposed to the current as-many-charges-and-cases-as-they-can.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ianferrel</author><text>Lawyers don&amp;#x27;t accept plea deals. Clients accept plea deals.&lt;p&gt;Lawyers are required by professional ethics (and possibly by law in some places) to present plea deals to their clients. Having it be otherwise would be problematic.</text></comment>
<story><title>Why America&apos;s prisons are an unconstitutional moral horror (2019)</title><url>https://www.mcall.com/opinion/mc-opi-prison-reform-morality-unconstitutional-20190101-story.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>djoldman</author><text>What would happen if the chief public defender of a large city declared that no public defender would accept any plea deal and that they would be taking everything to trial?&lt;p&gt;The courts would immediately be clogged and prosecutors would be forced to drop many charges because they wouldn&amp;#x27;t be able to have a trial within the mandated 70 days.&lt;p&gt;Prosecutors would be forced to choose the cases that they actually believed important as opposed to the current as-many-charges-and-cases-as-they-can.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>thebooktocome</author><text>More realistically, that chief public defender would be fired or harassed out of office within days.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s probably unconstitutional for them to refuse plea deals en masse if it creates a massive violation of one&amp;#x27;s right to a speedy trial.</text></comment>