The criminal justice system's treatment of Tigano is appalling. During his nearly seven-year pretrial incarceration, Tigano loudly and repeatedly invoked his Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial. Because Tigano kept bringing up the Sixth Amendment, he was forced to undergo three separate court-ordered examinations to determine whether he was competent to be tried. According to one of the prosecutors involved in the case, "Mr. Tigano III had been sort of demanding his speedy trial, which is part of the prompting for the Court sending him out for this evaluation." Tigano passed all three exams with flying colors.
The 2nd Circuit was correct to toss out Tigano's conviction. The framers and ratifiers of the Constitution viewed trial by jury as a fundamental right. Article III, Section 2 of the Constitution says "the Trial of all Crimes, except in cases of Impeachment, shall be by Jury; and such Trial shall be held in the State where the said Crimes shall have been committed." Because that language was not strong enough to satisfy the Anti-Federalists, the Sixth Amendment was added to the Constitution as an extra safeguard in 1791. "In all criminal prosecutions," it reads, "the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed." In a 1789 letter to Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson expressed the opinion of many in the founding generation when he praised the right to trial by jury as "the only anchor ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution."
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Tigano's ordeal illuminates a much bigger problem. Consider what Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Duszkiewicz had to say about the third competency examination that Tigano was forced to undergo. It was sparked "not necessarily [by] the competency question," Duszkiewicz said, "but [by] whether there is some other psychological problem that's going to prevent [Tigano] from understanding the difference between what he potentially looks at as far as a conviction as well as what's being offered by way of this plea."
Translation: Federal prosecutors piled on the charges expecting Tigano to plead guilty to a lesser offense and save everybody the trouble of going to trial. The prosecutors also let it be known that if Tigano rejected their deal, they would throw the book at him and he would forfeit his shot at "what's being offered by way of this plea." In short, sacrifice your Sixth Amendment rights and you'll do less time.
That coercive approach is standard operating procedure among prosecutors in criminal cases. According to the Justice Department, 97 percent of federal criminal convictions result from guilty pleas. At the state level, the figure is roughly 94 percent. In other words, only a tiny number of criminal suspects ever go to trial. For all practical purposes, the Sixth Amendment right "to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed," has been largely abolished.
http://reason.com/blog/2018/01/25/government-is-gutting-the-right-to-trial
like be charged with Obstruction for failing go cooperate
Your Damn Right I an not going go cooperate ... do your damn job and prove your case or release me
The 2nd Circuit was correct to toss out Tigano's conviction. The framers and ratifiers of the Constitution viewed trial by jury as a fundamental right. Article III, Section 2 of the Constitution says "the Trial of all Crimes, except in cases of Impeachment, shall be by Jury; and such Trial shall be held in the State where the said Crimes shall have been committed." Because that language was not strong enough to satisfy the Anti-Federalists, the Sixth Amendment was added to the Constitution as an extra safeguard in 1791. "In all criminal prosecutions," it reads, "the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed." In a 1789 letter to Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson expressed the opinion of many in the founding generation when he praised the right to trial by jury as "the only anchor ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution."
[clip]
Tigano's ordeal illuminates a much bigger problem. Consider what Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Duszkiewicz had to say about the third competency examination that Tigano was forced to undergo. It was sparked "not necessarily [by] the competency question," Duszkiewicz said, "but [by] whether there is some other psychological problem that's going to prevent [Tigano] from understanding the difference between what he potentially looks at as far as a conviction as well as what's being offered by way of this plea."
Translation: Federal prosecutors piled on the charges expecting Tigano to plead guilty to a lesser offense and save everybody the trouble of going to trial. The prosecutors also let it be known that if Tigano rejected their deal, they would throw the book at him and he would forfeit his shot at "what's being offered by way of this plea." In short, sacrifice your Sixth Amendment rights and you'll do less time.
That coercive approach is standard operating procedure among prosecutors in criminal cases. According to the Justice Department, 97 percent of federal criminal convictions result from guilty pleas. At the state level, the figure is roughly 94 percent. In other words, only a tiny number of criminal suspects ever go to trial. For all practical purposes, the Sixth Amendment right "to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed," has been largely abolished.
http://reason.com/blog/2018/01/25/government-is-gutting-the-right-to-trial
like be charged with Obstruction for failing go cooperate
Your Damn Right I an not going go cooperate ... do your damn job and prove your case or release me
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