this post was submitted on 12 Sep 2026
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The U.S. Justice Department failed to secure felony convictions against most of the 102 protesters arrested in four major cities last year on charges of assaulting federal authorities — a record far below the norm in federal assault prosecutions.

All of the dozen cases that made it to trial, mostly in Los Angeles, ended in acquittal, mistrial or dismissal. Experts say that’s surprising for a department known for its ability to win at trial. The last three felony assault cases, in LA and Portland, will go to trial this fall.

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[–] LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net 4 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Can you elaborate? It certainly appeared that way in the Praieland trial but I don't know how common that is.

[–] bedwyr@piefed.ca 7 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Federal districts are large, like a state of 10 million people might have two federal districts.

So jurors are pulled from that huge area. Naturally you will get more rural voters which trend more conservative But fed courts are also corrupt and it's easy for them to rig jury trials.

Just as the South Florida district rigged their supposed to be random selection from the 11 (active) judge circuit to choose a sycophant appointee of the president for both of the president's cases down there. 1/122 odds it wasn't rigged.

To be sure, many counties are just as bad to worse. My old county rigged juries for decades and decades for instance, and it took at least a decade if not more of some do gooders proving it over and over until they belatedly admitted an error in their methadology or something. I know a guy from like the 60's that voted not guilty as well and afterwards the prosecutor told him he would never be called for jury duty again, and he wasn't.

Over half of judges, and idk how many prosecutors, almost all at the moment, in fed courts are federalist society members, and they have no loyalty to the constitution, quite the opposite.

[–] LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net 4 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah a friend of mine was falsely accused of a crime during a protest and seeing them navigate that process really destroyed any faith I had left in the so-called justice system. All it took was a single lying cop and every single person and institution deemed them guilty until proven innocent from that point forward. The rules might claim to protect people from those types of things but it didn't seem like many people really cared to follow them too closely. But that was a county level case so I have no experience with federal courts and the DOJ.

[–] bedwyr@piefed.ca 2 points 8 hours ago

1% of federal defendants are acquitted, and 90% plea. According to a search page result, not giving me comparable state rates easily, but wikipedia on conviction rates says in part:

'n the United States federal court system, the conviction rate rose from approximately 75 percent to approximately 85% between 1972 and 1992.[29] For 2012, the US Department of Justice reported a 93% conviction rate.[30] In 2000, the conviction rate was also high in U.S. state courts. Coughlan, writing in 2000, stated, "In recent years, the conviction rate has averaged approximately 84% in Texas, 82% in California, 72% in New York, 67% in North Carolina, and 59% in Florida."[31]'