Advance legal columnist: Whom does the criminal justice system favor?

Some view America's criminal justice system as favoring defendants, allowing them to exploit legal technicalities and generous plea-bargains to avoid being duly punished for their crimes. Others see a system that is stacked against defendants, one in which people, particularly the poor and underprivileged, are victimized by police misconduct, overzealous prosecutions, inadequate legal representation, and biased juries.

Though both are gross oversimplifications, each does have some merit.

For example, the United States is the only nation in the world that employs the so-called "exclusionary rule," a principle whereby most evidence improperly obtained by law enforcement is inadmissible against a defendant at trial. Such an instance occurred last Tuesday when, in People v. Gavazzi, the New York Court of Appeals suppressed evidence of child pornography obtained from the defendant's home because of a clerical error in the search warrant. Judge Robert S. Smith dissented, lamenting that the defendant would go free "because the constable has blundered."

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