Currently, prosecutors in both the juvenile and adult criminal justice systems have too much discretion in pressing charges, determining what sentences are sought, and negotiating plea deals. Trial by jury is a key tenant of the American criminal justice system, but heightened prosecutorial power significantly reduces the power and frequency of a trial by peers. Attempts at sentencing reform must address largely unchecked prosecutorial discretion.
“Under the law of parties, if people conspire together to commit a felony (in this case, armed robbery), and one person commits an additional felony in furtherance of the first one that could have been anticipated, ‘all conspirators are guilty of the felony actually committed, though having no intent to commit it.’ In other states, a similar doctrine is known as felony murder.“
The Appeal
March 28, 2019
Read More"One of Hein’s friends pulled a knife during a fistfight over marijuana. James Farris III died; Jason Holland testified that he committed the stabbings in a backyard clubhouse, but Hein was also sentenced to life in prison under California’s “felony murder” rule that holds accomplices to the same standard as if they had personally committed the crime."
AP
August 17, 2018
Read More"Felony-murder laws allow prosecutors to file murder charges against participants in fatal crimes without having to show that they intended to kill. Unlike such laws in other states, the appeals court said, the California law “takes an abstract approach to evaluating a crime’s dangerousness,” looking at the definition of the crime rather than the facts of the individual case."
San Francisco Chronicle
August 6, 2018
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