Decriminalize minor offenses
Editor: The Point/Counterpoint piece about jury nullification has Henny Penny worrying about a rarity in the criminal justice system, much like the excessive concern over voter fraud (“Jury nullification is the left’s clear option to blow up justice,” April 20). Neither event is very likely to occur.
Underlying the author’s position is a myth about justice. Firstly, less than half of serious crimes are even reported, according to the National Institutes for Health. Second, less than half of those reported are solved. If not complicated, a disposition may result in at best a year. But, third, 95% of those resolutions are achieved by plea bargaining, not trial.
The real fix would be to change our laws about due process for misdemeanors (decriminalized, by eliminating incarceration as a penalty, thus bypassing the Fifth and Sixth Amendments) and resolve them through administrative hearings, freeing court calendars for matters like war crimes and crimes against humanity.
John A. MacKinnon, Lackawaxen