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CPD Supt. David Brown on @WBEZreset right now calling for courts to reopen, saying officers can’t effectively combat carjackings if suspects don’t face the prospect of a jury trial. “without leverage in the court system to convict and get a sentence, we’re spinning our wheels.”
Now ... the vast majority of cases do NOT end in a jury trial or any kind of trial. Most are pleas.
The lack of jury trials does change the leverage/calculation when considering pleas, of course, but still
The lack of jury trials does change the leverage/calculation when considering pleas, of course, but still
And a lot of carjacking suspects are juveniles, who aren’t entitled to jury trials even in normal times except under very specific circumstances.
A stalled-out courthouse has a lot of ripple effects across the system, sure, but I’m a bit skeptical that if jury trials were to restart tomorrow it would have an effect on the carjacking problem
As noted legal analysts the White Stripes once wrote, you can’t take the effect and make it the cause
