Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Acquittal rates

In today's Wall Street Journal David Satter suggests the low acquittal rate in Russia (about one percent) shows an unfair legal system.

Perhaps but perhaps not. The low Russian acquittal rate for criminal charges is not necessarily a reflection of an unfair legal system.

Canada, which is generally accepted as having a fair criminal justice system, has an acquittal rate of less than 4%. If the figures for Quebec (which has a distinct society that tends to more sympathy for accuseds) are removed, the rate falls significantly beyond that.

Sometimes a low acquittal rate is a result of careful prosecutorial discretion; Canadian prosecutors do not proceed on weak charges. That may, or may not, be the case in Russia.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not sure the point you're arguing.

Russian prosecutors' proceeding on weak charges should then result in a higher acquittal rate than Canada's, when we're told that in fact it's quite a bit lower.

James C Morton said...

I was being unclear - and this post was inteded as sarcastic...

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