(Washington D.C.) – Right On Crime, a national, conservative criminal justice organization, wrote a Letter of Support today encouraging members of Congress to consider the bipartisan policies of the Right To Trial Act, legislation to restore our constitutional right to a jury trial.
Despite the protections enshrined in the Sixth Amendment, approximately only 3% of criminal convictions in our country are the result of jury trials and 97% are plea bargains, an imbalance some have coined “the trial penalty.”
While plea bargains are a helpful tool that prosecutors and defense attorneys alike use to expedite cases where a defendant chooses to admit and accept culpability, it has completely overshadowed the jury trial and Americans’ Sixth Amendment rights.
“The heavy reliance on plea bargains has damaged the legitimacy of our criminal justice system and has led to overly long and disparate sentences for identical conduct, with sentences’ lengths being based solely on a case resolving through a trial or plea,” said Brett Tolman, Executive Director of Right On Crime and former U. S. Attorney.
Right On Crime National Policy Director Rachel Wright said, “The accepted reliance of plea bargains places coercive power in the government’s hands, allowing prosecutors to use the threat of lengthy sentences to induce a defendant to waive other constitutional rights, and perhaps most offensively, the practice has led innocent defendants to plead guilty.”
The Right to Trial Act seeks to address some of these wrongs, giving federal judges more discretion to assess the plea bargain process and ensure that the most just outcome is achieved. The narrow bill does not do away with mandatory minimum sentences or eliminate prosecutorial discretion.
“The Right to Trial Act is a scalpel, not a sledgehammer, in addressing the trial penalty issue,” said Tolman in the Letter of Support addressed to Congress. “Americans should not be punished for exercising their constitutional rights.”
Right On Crime is also a member of the End the Trial Penalty Coalition, an alliance created to restore our constitutional right to trial. #EndTheTrialPenalty
Right On Crime is a national campaign of the Texas Public Policy Foundation supporting conservative solutions for reducing crime, restoring victims, reforming offenders, and lowering taxpayer costs. The movement was born in Texas in 2007 and has led the way in implementing conservative criminal justice initiatives across the nation. For more information, visit our website at www.RightOnCrime.com