US Criminal Conviction Rates

The cluster centers on discussions of the extremely high conviction rates (often 95-99%) in the US criminal justice system, particularly federal prosecutions, attributing them to selective case pursuit by prosecutors and widespread plea bargains, while debating implications for fairness, innocence, and systemic issues.

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1,837
Comments
19
Years Active
5
Top Authors
#7246
Topic ID

Activity Over Time

2008
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2011
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2012
31
2013
95
2014
81
2015
164
2016
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2017
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2018
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Keywords

e.g US archive.org pewresearch.org U.S nippon.com wikipedia.org DA conviction guilty rate trial prosecutors convicted innocent criminal cases crimes

Sample Comments

Zikes Aug 1, 2015 View on HN

Sucks to be him.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conviction_rate

jacquesm Jun 19, 2015 View on HN

Interesting, wikipedia has an entry on conviction rate and it specifically mentions 'prosecutor':https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conviction_rate

mthoms Jul 12, 2020 View on HN

You literally just made that up.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conviction_rate

endorphone Feb 3, 2019 View on HN

Given that the conviction rate exceeds 99% it all seems like splitting hairs -- when you've been charged, you will be sentenced. It seems unlikely that they're just that good at deciding who to charge.

paulpauper Jul 14, 2021 View on HN

Not really. Federal prosecutors have a 98 percent conviction rate. Combined with long sentences means a lot of ppl just plead guilty even if innocent

danso Jul 7, 2022 View on HN

This is kind of a nitpick, but U.S. prosecutors also boast 99+% conviction rates. Note that conviction rate is not necessarily indicative of a systems effectiveness (or lack of fairness). Prosecutors only pursue charges in very few cases, and very few of those cases go to trialhttps://www

est Jul 5, 2019 View on HN

Conviction by human court has a success rate.

eunos Aug 12, 2021 View on HN

No guilty plea (More than 97 percent of federal criminal convictions, 95 for state) and prosecutor being selective (only prosecutes case that open-and-shut) means very high conviction rate.

badrabbit Jun 14, 2022 View on HN

99% conviction rate. Nice law but practically, if you are accused you will get convicted. I don't know why they make a mockery of their judicial system. Either a ton of bad guys don't get tried or a ton of innocent people are getting convicted.

Merrill Jan 19, 2020 View on HN

The conviction rate in criminal trials should be high, perhaps 90% or higher.A low conviction rate implies that a lot of shaky cases with poor evidence are being brought. This exposes innocent people to the inconvenience and expense of mounting a defense and to the possibility of a false conviction.