Commission on Criminal Justice, set up in the wake of the Birmingham Six, Guildford Four and other high profile police frameups, proposes new attacks on defendants' rights. Among the most reactionary proposals are plea bargaining and restrictions on the right to jury trial.
Plea bargaining in the US tice system to a farce. Defendants who refuse to plead guilty and opt for a lesser senfence have a very high chance of conviction. and get harsh sentences. pecale. esseciaily those who yers, to plead guily.
Jury trials are much more likely to return 'not guilty' verdicts. Giving lower courts the right to decide who can have a jury trial is a massive attack on working class defendants.
Saving money
Both these proposals are aimed at saving money, but also ensuring higher conviction rates. the right to have defence evidence seriously considered is being undermined.
The new attacks go hand-inhand with the restrictions on an American system where lower courts are an assembly line conviction machine. the report, spectacular policeframe-ups, it's amazing that the commission proposes continuing with 'confession-only' evidence and says nothing about tampering with forensic evidence.
Videoing police interrogations is supposed to ensure an end to 'confessions' through intimidation. In fact threats and intimidation can occur off camera.
Confessions
Police notebooks with alleged confessions and signatures of the accused at the scene of the crime are not a thing of the past.
A further attack is the obligation for the accused to readvance. Disclosure of defence is a step away from the "innoguilty principle, a further attempt to stack the cards in fa. vour of the prosecution.
These new attacks represent a deepening of the already degraded system of "justice'. The introduction of majority verdicts, together with rigorous vetting of jurors by police and prosecution, has already undermined the position of defendants.
Judges, invariably harsh reactionaries, have been given further power to sway juries Howard: new attacks on rights by the majority verdict system. Restrictions on legal aid further weight to legal system to being one which only the rich can successfully utilise. we neco to mom now to deat back this attack on our rights.
SOCIALIST OUTLOOK No. 47, July-August 1993. Page 4