The use of mandatory minimums effectively vests prosecutors with powerful sentencing discretion. The prosecutor controls the decision to charge a person with a mandatory-eligible crime
Wrong problem. Minimums and maximums are a bad workaround for this.
Obviously the prosecutor should not be the only person who can decide which crime to charge, or not to charge, and this decision should not be possible only at the beginning of the proceedings.
In our country the judge can easilly change the exact crime(s), and this is done very often, because it makes everybody’s life easier and the truth is served much better when this decision is made again after all evidence, witnesses etc. have been seen and heard.
Wrong problem. Minimums and maximums are a bad workaround for this.
Obviously the prosecutor should not be the only person who can decide which crime to charge, or not to charge, and this decision should not be possible only at the beginning of the proceedings.
In our country the judge can easilly change the exact crime(s), and this is done very often, because it makes everybody’s life easier and the truth is served much better when this decision is made again after all evidence, witnesses etc. have been seen and heard.
Good point. I will add that to the long list of reforms we need in the US criminal system.
See that that list gets looked at too, would you?