Word: gets
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...ambiguous, and judges are lax in enforcing them. When the laws do work, there is a need for more judges to handle the load and civil cases are backed up. Lawyers complain that they do not have time to prepare their cases, and that means that some prosecutions simply get dropped. Because of such arguments, the Federal Speedy Trial Act, expected to go into effect last month, has been postponed by Congress for one year...
Some critics of plea bargaining complain that criminals get off too lightly. Others insist that defendants get railroaded out of their right to a trial by prosecutors who "overcharge," i.e., charge defendants with worse crimes than they committed, to force them into guilty pleas. What everyone agrees on is that plea bargaining is at best an expedient to lighten case loads...
...Sheer volume almost mandates it," says Judge Rothwax, who is careful to make sure the defendant agreed to the bargain and that it is fair. In New York, according to District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, the sentence a defendant gets from pleading guilty is not much different from the sentence he would get by going to trial. But in many other courts, clearing the docket, otherwise known as moving the business, becomes almost an end in itself...
That is a convincing argument for getting better judges to begin with. In about half the states, most judges are elected. The rationale has always been that voters should have a say in choosing the people who resolve their disputes and enforce public law. But most voters do not know much about the candidates for whom they are voting. A Texas poll in 1976 found that only 2% could even remember the names of the county judges on the ballot. A campaign for office is an inexact gauge of how a judge will behave if elected. New York Court...
Other potential candidates see a federal judgeship less as a prestigious and challenging job than as very hard work for low pay. Senator Charles Percy has privately remarked that he has had to offer, the job to ten people just to get one. Says U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Edward Allen Tamm: "Federal judges are working harder than they ever did in private practice, but they never get their heads above water." Worn down by the work load, comparing their salaries ($54,500 to $57,500) with the six-figure incomes of really successful lawyers, a discouraging number of federal...