The U.S. Justice Department failed to secure felony convictions against most of the 102 protesters arrested in four major cities last year on charges of assaulting federal authorities — a record far below the norm in federal assault prosecutions.
All of the dozen cases that made it to trial, mostly in Los Angeles, ended in acquittal, mistrial or dismissal. Experts say that’s surprising for a department known for its ability to win at trial. The last three felony assault cases, in LA and Portland, will go to trial this fall.
Yeah a friend of mine was falsely accused of a crime during a protest and seeing them navigate that process really destroyed any faith I had left in the so-called justice system. All it took was a single lying cop and every single person and institution deemed them guilty until proven innocent from that point forward. The rules might claim to protect people from those types of things but it didn’t seem like many people really cared to follow them too closely. But that was a county level case so I have no experience with federal courts and the DOJ.
1% of federal defendants are acquitted, and 90% plea. According to a search page result, not giving me comparable state rates easily, but wikipedia on conviction rates says in part:
‘n the United States federal court system, the conviction rate rose from approximately 75 percent to approximately 85% between 1972 and 1992.[29] For 2012, the US Department of Justice reported a 93% conviction rate.[30] In 2000, the conviction rate was also high in U.S. state courts. Coughlan, writing in 2000, stated, “In recent years, the conviction rate has averaged approximately 84% in Texas, 82% in California, 72% in New York, 67% in North Carolina, and 59% in Florida.”[31]’