The 4.1% wrongful conviction rate mentioned in this article is interesting, but doesn't come close to displaying the gross injustices perpetrated by our "justice" system. First, prosecutors routinely overcharge defendants in an effort to extort guilty pleas. Second, 3 Strikes and other anti-recidivism laws have produced barbaric sentencing results for relatively minor crimes. Examples: In California, 30.1 percent of inmates are serving life sentences. Utah, 29.2 percent; Nevada, 21.5; Massachusetts, 19.4; New York, 18.8; Alabama, 16.6, and Washington, 15.4.
Sadly, there is no relief in sight. The Supreme Court has ruled that "the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of 'cruel and unusual punishments' was aimed at excluding only certain modes [or types] of punishment, and was not a 'guarantee against disproportionate sentences." This ruling came down in a case where they upheld the life prison sentence of a California man convicted of shoplifting three golf clubs priced at $399.
In short: the US justice system is out of control, and the Supreme Court has no intention of stopping it.
Your math is all wrong: if at a given moment in time 30% of inmates are serving life sentences, it really doesn't mean 30% of prison sentences are life sentences! Look at the population of inmates in a year ago and now, and the subset of life prisoners is probably mostly the same people (they don't get out much), while a much larger percentage of the rest of the inmate population isn't the same people.
I edited the comment and removed my confusing commentary, but I wasn't suggesting that 30% of all sentences are life sentences. I just said that if you are in prison in California, you have a 30% chance of dying there (which is in fact mathematically correct). Regardless, the numbers are off the charts vs. the rest of the world.
People with shorter sentences are less likely to make it to the statistics, so 30% of current inmates does not mean you have 30% of getting life sentence if you are sentenced.
Sadly, there is no relief in sight. The Supreme Court has ruled that "the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of 'cruel and unusual punishments' was aimed at excluding only certain modes [or types] of punishment, and was not a 'guarantee against disproportionate sentences." This ruling came down in a case where they upheld the life prison sentence of a California man convicted of shoplifting three golf clubs priced at $399.
In short: the US justice system is out of control, and the Supreme Court has no intention of stopping it.