I've never liked the adversarial trial system-- Germany has a better approach

[nancylebov]

https://law.yale.edu/system/files/documents/pdf/Faculty/Langbein_Land_Without_Plea_Bargaining.pdf

Longish, but worth reading at least the first half or so.

The German legal system has efficient trials, and I don't mean railroading people, I mean not wasting time by not having an adversarial system. They don't have plea bargaining because they don't have an overwhelmed court system which creates the incentive for plea bargaining.

At this point, the German style strikes me as simply superior to the American style.

If anyone knows more about how the German legal system works out in practice, let me know.

A little more about the American system....

https://www.forbes.com/sites/walterpavlo/2018/07/31/are-innocent-people-pleading-guilty-a-new-report-says-yes/#795a40d35193

Comments

[madfilkentist]

I've been to Germany lots of times and personally know a German judge, but I don't know much about their legal system, so I can't comment on the article from independent knowledge. Certainly the plea bargaining system in the US is a disaster. The author downplays the case load as a major reason the US uses it so much, but I think it has to be the principal reason.

The article talks about expressing remorse as a mitigating factor but doesn't think it's much of a problem. People who are innocent, though, get punished more severely unless they falsely confess and fake remorse for what they didn't do. This is a problem in the US system and sounds as if it must be a problem in the German system as well.

IANAL, of course.

[marycatelli]

And the innocent don't get paroled as easily, for the same reason.