It used to be that if an investigation turned up no evidence, charges would be dropped. Today, prosecutors feel compelled to justify the expenditure of funds on the investigation. Instead of dismissing charges, statutes are stretched beyond their meaning in order to create crimes where no criminal intent was present. Many criminal defense lawyers are part of the problem. They have become facilitators of injustice, convincing their clients, innocent or guilty, to enter a plea instead of going to trial.
Defense lawyers prefer working out a plea agreement to mounting a stiff defense in the courtroom.
Attorneys feel safer negotiating with a prosecutor in a conference room than poking holes in his case in a courtroom. Defense attorneys harden themselves against wrongful convictions by rationalizing that they cut a deal that got their client a sentence of five years instead of 10. In the United States today, punishment has been separated from guilt and is the likely fate of anyone, innocent or guilty, who has the misfortune to encounter the criminal justice system. This is the real problem. It is a problem that received no attention in the Ashcroft hearings.