Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Are federal judges acquittal-prone?

Via the Volokh Conspiracy and this Rocky Mountain News article, I was intrigued by this study which concludes that federal judges are more likely than federal juries to acquit criminal defendants.

I recollect sitting in on part of a federal criminal trial before Chief Judge Jones, which ended in an acquittal, and some generic discussion afterwards with one of the lawyers about how did they make the call for a bench trial - without the benefit of this particular article.

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