[kasey_junk]

Counterpoint, I was on a murder jury several years ago where every part of the justice system was pretty abysmal. Whether the police who were near incompetent in their investigation, the forensics people who could barely maintain chain of evidence or both sets of attorneys who couldn’t make logical arguments on either side.

The only people who came out looking good was the judge who was able to keep this circus from blowing up and my fellow jury members who despite the system all ended up reasonable and serious in their deliberations.

[George83728]

> "police who were near incompetent in their investigation, the forensics people who could barely maintain chain of evidence"

Are you sure they were all bad at their jobs? It's certainly possible. But it's also possible that you simply had unrealistic expectations for what the process looks like, exemplifying the "CSI Effect".

This is why I find these sort of pseudo-anonymous anecdotes very difficult to judge; I know neither the details of the case, nor you personally. It's like trying to get reviews for headphones online... suppose I read a review from somebody who says the headphones sound worse than a skinned cat. Is that review from a typical headphone user with reasonable expectations for sound quality? Or is it from an audiophile with very high, perhaps fanciful, standards? I have no point of reference for determining where that person is coming from.

[kasey_junk]

Let’s put it this way, even though they had a full video confession it made it to trial…

[overthrow]

Police often manipulate or coerce people into making false confessions. 29% of DNA exonerations in the US involved a false confession.

https://innocenceproject.org/dna-exonerations-in-the-united-...

[giardini]

This!

A friend, A former police officer, said the most astonishing thing he learned as a rookie was how easily some people would confess to crimes they could not possibly have committed. Such persons were usually not very bright and, after hours of interrogation, could be convinced that they had indeed done a bad deed.

[kevviiinn]

Hence being bad at their jobs

[gamblor956]

It seems like you might have very unrealistic expectations for the criminal justice system.

Defendants are constitutionally entitled to a jury trial. Even if they were caught on 4k video, with their face fully identifiable, their fingerprints all over the blood scene, and they walk straight into a police station afterwards to confess.

A defense lawyer with a client who confessed on video has an extremely difficult job; they must try to present a credible case while also not suborning perjury or violating ethical rules. Very frequently, they're not going to have a "logical" case; they're simply trying to poke whatever holes they can in the prosecution's case...because the Defense is not constitutionally required to prove anything (unless they're attempting to prove an affirmative defense, and if they were you'd know because the judge would explicitly tell you).

On the other hand, if the prosecutor and the police and the forensics guys were all as incompetent as you claim, the defense might have gone to trial despite the taped confession because there was a chance they could prevail with a jury if the prosecution messed up presenting the case. I won most of my jury trials because the prosecution messed up.

[kasey_junk]

Your last paragraph was my point. The incompetence of the investigation left a chance at trial even though there was a taped confession.

If the investigation had been just workmanlike or followed basic protocols I cant imagine any defense attorney would have wanted to take it to trial. Though perhaps they still didn’t want that but their client demanded it. I of course couldn’t know that.

[George83728]

If the accused wants to plead innocent even after confessing, isn't that their right? They're entitled to a trial.

[red-iron-pine]

Potentially. Confessing to a 5-0 during an interrogation is different from entering a plea of guilty or not guilty.

But given that you just confessed guilt, a not guilty plea is going to raise eyebrows and potentially end badly.

[kevviiinn]

Or is it coming from someone who thinks the original airpods are cream of the crop?

[rcme]

This sounds more like the Dunning-Kruger effect than a true reflection of the justice system.