Hacker News Reader

Comment by jackpirate | Hacker News Reader

Then how would the rich avoid punishment for their crimes?

/s (but only slightly)

Statistically the rich don't do any better than anyone who can afford a lawyer. The people who get screwed are the ones relying on court-appointed counsel. They do significantly worse.

Just an anecdote, but extremes like this happen too https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Durst#Trial

Being able to afford a lawyer is synonymous with being rich. If you can spend 100K on lawyer fees without going bankrupt, you were rich.

Most people who own a house or have savings or have family can scrape together enough money to engage a lawyer. How much that actually costs depends on the charge.

So many cases are pled out these days (98% at the federal level), I doubt more than a tiny percentage of defendants are spending anything like $100k.

Guessing this is conditional on getting brought to trial right? A prosecutor is going to bring a murder charge no matter who the suspect is, but that Senator's son's DUI? Or that four star general sharing classified information with his mistress? Might get pled for chump change or charges mgbt get dropped.

Might be, but can you assume that without evidence?

On what kind of crimes? Because for white collar crime, the one that defines the rich, its almost impossible to get them...

It's possible that white collar crime is just hard to prosecute in general, but poor people have less opportunity to commit white collar crime. So what we really need to do is make white collar crime more accessible. /s?

As Anatole France said, "In its majestic equality, the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges".

leave this kind of pointless platitude with no facts or sources to reddit please. they love that kind of shit over there.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com