[nickodell]

>taking the life of an innocent

The prosecutor isn't unilaterally deciding whether the DNA evidence is valid. There will be a public hearing where both the prosecution and defense show evidence about the validity of the DNA evidence, and a court will rule based on that evidence.

[afthonos]

You should read up on the rates of plea bargaining, as well as the methods prosecutors use to push defendants to do so, which include:

- Not revealing all information they are required to.

- Parallel construction (see above)

- Overcharging, with the goal of making the plea more palatable than the cost/risk of defending multiple absurd charges.

- Lying to you while getting to throw you in jail if you lie to them.

As a result, only 5% of federal cases go to trial.

None of behaviors these are rare. If your understanding of the legal system is based on popular culture, as most people’s is, it is basically law enforcement propaganda that has little relationship to reality.

[nickodell]

Believe it or not, I was already aware of all of those things, having followed a number of criminal defense blogs.

If you read the article and appellate decision which is linked, it says what I just said:

>On Wednesday, the appellate court sided with the defense [PDF] and sent the case back to a lower court directing the judge to compel Cybergenetics to make the TrueAllele code available to the defense team.

[afthonos]

Apologies, I thought you were stating general facts about DNA evidence in general, not about this specific case.

[bscphil]

Yeah, the system is in a pretty horrific state when you have to count on prosecutors' restraint for anything. Granted, we are in such a state, but it's beneficial not to just accept that as the status quo.