[Howard Treesong]

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Why do you think juries are so pro-prosecution in criminal cases? I've seen statistics that indicate conviction rates of 75%+ in some jurisdictions. Given how easy it is for prosecutors to get indictments, There should be a LOT more aquitals in our court system. It's very very difficult to prove that a person did something beyond a reasonable doubt. Especially given constitutional limitations and rules of evidence. Just looking at the design of the U.S. criminal justice system on paper, I would guess the conviction rate should be somewhere between 15-25%.

I think the two factors that contribute most to this phenomenon are the facts that sample of the population that serves on criminal juries is skewed towards excessively pro-government people, and the police/prosecution have exponentially more resources at their disposal than your average defendant.

Any thoughts on this?

Do you think there's a chance that this bug in the system can/will be fixed?

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I think this has much more to do with the fact that prosecutors are largely overwhelmed and thus only choose to prosecute cases they think they can win, and plea everything else. The one exception is, I think, high-publicity cases in which prosecutors might generate headlines.

I'm actually surprised that conviction rates aren't higher than 75%. I was on one criminal jury and there was absolutely no doubt in my mind that the guy was guilty. The prosecutor wasn't very good, but he sure did have an excess of evidence.