What is the Sixth Amendment?
You wouldn't be blamed for having to consult Google to answer that question. The Founders are rolling in their graves anyway.
It's the right to a trial by jury, and it's one that society has all but disposed of—despite the Framers' insistence that it be included in the Bill of Rights as one of the primary bulwarks against government tyranny.
[...] about 97 percent of trials are resolved without juries, devoid of the sacrosanct lifeblood that keeps human liberty from death by suffocation.
That tool has been supplanted by the plea bargain. In popular culture, that's widely seen as advantageous to defendants. In reality, it's been disastrous. It epitomizes government coercion. It epitomizes what the Founders warned against.
Giving the government carte blanche to arbitrarily adjust sentencing based on the subjective criteria of “plea deals” has been nothing but a total license for bad actors to maximally punish the regime’s enemies while letting allies off the hook.
Loosely related Reason article: https://archive.li/KHLut
Giving the government carte blanche to arbitrarily adjust sentencing based on the subjective criteria of “plea deals” has been nothing but a total license for bad actors to maximally punish the regime’s enemies while letting allies off the hook.