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I missed this last week, but there was an interesting pieceby syndicated columnist Neal Peirce about the problematic amount ofpower held by prosecutors. It provided me a fuller context for an issuewe work on: getting rid of mandatory minimum sentencing and returningdecision-making power to judges, who are more accountable thanprosecutors.

Peirce uses a drug case to exemplify the problem:

Dependingon the amount, the prosecutor can charge simple possession (amisdemeanor), or possession with intent to distribute (a felony that inmost jurisdictions means a mandatory prison sentence). So it's theprosecutor, through his charge and plea-bargaining powers, who reallydecides prison time (and most likely a wrecked life) for the defendant,or not.

This power is exerted over a huge number of people.According to Angela J. Davis, a law professor at American Universitywho has written a book on the subject (Arbitrary Justice: The Power of the American Prosecutor, which looks to be coming out later this year), "95% of all criminal cases are resolved by a guilty plea."

Thebiggest problem with the current system, according to Davis, isprosecutors' lack of accountability. Voters don't know what prosecutorsare actually doing, and legislative bodies pay attention only to theextent of increasing prosecutors' power. This absence of checks leadsto an environment where elected prosecutors overcharge to prove they'retough on crime, and cases are handled differently depending on the raceand class of the people involved.

As you might have guessed, the war on drugs comes up here. More from Peirce:

Davisalso pinpoints how appointed U.S. attorneys, pursuing the country's"war on drugs," have focused relentlessly on convicting andincarcerating even small-time neighborhood drug dealers and theirgirlfriends and family members, especially from inner-cityneighborhoods, even on the scantiest of evidence. Federal drugprosecutions tripled between 1981 and 1990.

Peirce wraps uphis column with some of Davis' ideas about how to curb the abuses ofpower. She recommends investigations into prosecution practices by barassociations, and the establishment of review boards to hear complaintsfrom the public and conduct random reviews of prosecutions.

Thesesound like good starting points, but I'm curious whether she suggestsgetting rid of mandatory minimums, and putting sentencing power back inthe hands of judges.

Posted by Megan Farrington.
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