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New Orleans man locked up nearly 8 years awaiting trial, then case gets tossed

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Re: New Orleans man locked up nearly 8 years awaiting trial, then case gets tossed

#101

Post by Chris2048 »

sergers wrote: post #7
gozur88 wrote: post #5

While I agree it's unconstitutional to park someone in jail for eight years without bail or a trial, this particular guy is probably ecstatic at how it all worked out: >As a parolee with a previous drug charge to his name, Smith was looking at a sentence of 20 years to life if convicted as a habitual offender, according to one of his lawyers.

From the article, he potentially had a plea deal to get out in 2015, but turned it down. > “He could have come home as early as January of 2015,” said defense attorney Martin Regan, whose firm handled the case from the start. “There’s a man who just steadfastly said, 'I don’t care, you can keep me. I’m not guilty, I want a trial.' ” I am thinking it was strategy to wait it out, perhaps not initially. Or thinking abou…

He wanted his day in court..

Re: New Orleans man locked up nearly 8 years awaiting trial, then case gets tossed

#102

Post by pas »

SomeStupidPoint wrote: post #63
sillysaurus3 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main problem is that most people in American society don't care what happens to prisoners. Don't be surprised if you employ these techniques only to discover nobody lifts a finger. That said, this would be a project I'd be interested in contributing to. If you set it up, shoot me an email.

I'll be honest: I suspect that this is actually quite common and I have absolutely no idea how to fix it. But I suspect that much like homelessness, step 0 is gathering an accurate, systemic level picture so we can even understand what we're trying to fix. Targeted treatments and good intentions aren't working -- we need a system level mechanism. Ed: I replied to a cached copy; leaving in case anyone raises the same…

Local elections. Local police puts local folks into local jails. County jail is run by local people.

So the question becomes, what is the gamut of these jails? Are there facilities that are run well, on time, safely, etc..? What separates them from these hellholes? What's the context? What's the difference between those counties?

Re: New Orleans man locked up nearly 8 years awaiting trial, then case gets tossed

#104

Post by Feniks »

solotronics wrote: post #11
derefr wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Previous drug charge ? Does that mean that he wasn't convicted the first time, either? The only thing "habitual" there, then, would be the police's desire to arrest him.

it's pretty standard in the US for the district attourney to offer a plea bargian of parole in exchange for pleading guilty. This results in high win rate for the attourney and they look at it as most of these parolees end up making a mistake during parole and going in for longer sentances.

Yeah an actual trial with a jury is expensive. The DA wants to avoid that hassle.

Look most people in the US can scrape together 50k for bail and a decent lawyer who tells them exactly how to handle the prosecution. The people who can't are SoL. The burden of poverty.

Re: New Orleans man locked up nearly 8 years awaiting trial, then case gets tossed

#105

Post by Feniks »

jopsen wrote: post #26
leesalminen wrote: post #21

The concept of bail negatively affects the poor. Washington DC has a new system where they got rid of the bail system. They have 2 options: RoR (release on your own recognizance) and hold until trial. Although not perfect, this is much better than a bail system.

> The concept of bail negatively affects the poor. I thought that was intentional :) afaik bail isn't used much outside the US, Canada and UK. The US for-profit bail industry is the usual case of Americans taking a bad idea to the extreme in the search of a little profit.

That's because in Europe it is very difficult to disappear under the radar. Most people show up on trial, the ones that don't are nabbed pretty quickly.

The only people who have to await trial in jail are the ones that are considered dangerous or a real flight risk. There's no way a low level drug dealer would escape abroad.

Re: New Orleans man locked up nearly 8 years awaiting trial, then case gets tossed

#106

Post by ekianjo »

noer wrote: post #51
ekianjo wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The government should pay back-salary to anyone with a case dismissed in this manner. The "government" is the taxpayers, basically. I'd rather have all folks involved in ruining that man's life being sued like they should, and having to repay him for the opportunity loss. Taxpayers represent an infinite pocket to steal from, but private citizens don't have as much resources and should be held responsible for their…

Prosecutors, for the most part are immune to civil suits being brought against them.

Isn't that something we should fix?

Re: New Orleans man locked up nearly 8 years awaiting trial, then case gets tossed

#107

Post by jsmthrowaway »

jacquesm wrote: post #89
jsmthrowaway wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi, four-month felony pretrial inmate who is proudly defying recidivism here. I’m the kind of guy who thinks load balancing is a fun topic of discussion — ask anyone who knows me how incredibly unfit for jail I am — and I survived just fine. You seem to have had the shit scared out of you, and I wanted to clarify a few things for you. You don’t have to be racist to survive county. You simply stick with your race. The…

You're supposed to be safe in jail. Just in case that had not sunk in yet because of your experience but whoever runs that jail should be in jail themselves.

That’s the thing, though: you truly cannot rely on that, even more so than the outside world. Once you get there, you realize how much “supposed to be” is just words. You’re supposed to be safe at a country music festival or a church, too. But occasionally, you’re not safe in those situations and it’s through absolutely no fault of your own.

So, you have to protect yourself. In jail, this means fighting when needed. In other situations, it’s just being aware and ready to protect yourself.

DOs certainly respond if a fight takes place (it’s a chance to put some fools in the hole), but it’s the same concept as police response time. If you adopt that otherwise-correct attitude and treat it as more than just words, you won’t be ready for the inevitable. If you take care of things, you will be left alone; there’s some truth in that Hollywood trope about jail. The only person you can rely upon in jail is yourself, and that’s actually a lesson I’m glad I experienced, because it gave me different perspective on day to day life.

Is this right? Not saying it is. I do know I’d much rather be in jail here than, say, Thailand or Peru. Every time they hit a Peruvian jail they confiscate five or six guns.

Funny you say that, by the way, because Joe Arpaio ran my jail. :)

Re: New Orleans man locked up nearly 8 years awaiting trial, then case gets tossed

#108

Post by andrepd »

princeb wrote: post #25
jopsen wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

look to Portugal, the legalization is not the main thing. (shorter sentences, because prison doesn't work, and treatment above all) It's no cliffhanger - really any action would do wonders. Instead we see systemic failures at multiple levels.

parent post seems quite vague. i think he means to use these imprisoned drug users as free labour to make money for the state. i believe some private prisons already do that.

Economic incentives for imprisoning people to be effective slave labourers is such a mind-bogglingly stupid idea that I don't even

Re: New Orleans man locked up nearly 8 years awaiting trial, then case gets tossed

#109

Post by TheCoelacanth »

tyingq wrote: post #76
gok wrote: post #4

There are many cases of defendants' right to a speedy trial being trampled. I'm not completely convinced this is a particularly great example of that. He was arrested while on parole, which is why he didn't get out on bail. Many of the delays came from his side. If it had gone to trial, the prosecution would have only had to prove he was guilty by a preponderance of the evidence. So the long time in detention could h…

I don't see any case where 8 years feels like due process though. The pipeline is based on plea bargains. Wanting a trial shouldn't take 8 years, ever.

Also doesn't feel like the "speedy trial" that he is constitutionally guaranteed.

Re: New Orleans man locked up nearly 8 years awaiting trial, then case gets tossed

#110

Post by noer »

ekianjo wrote: post #106
noer wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Prosecutors, for the most part are immune to civil suits being brought against them.

Isn't that something we should fix?

I think so, but the Supreme Court didn't in 1976. Frankly, I think there should be a lot more personal liability around careless work when it impacts the health & safety of others. For example, I think police misconduct damages should be paid of out of the police pension funds.
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