... Charles:

>> ... or if you get caught to get off on some technicality.

I practiced criminal law for nearly 25 years -- ten as a prosecutor and 15 as defense counsel. In that time, I reviewed, filed, negotiated, settled, tried and/or worked on appeals of at least 10,000 criminal cases. In all those years and out of all those cases, I'll bet I didn't see more than a few dozen defendants get off on a "technicality". Less than 1%, for sure.

A few such cases get a lot of publicity. For everyone else, the reality is quite the opposite. The vast majority of criminal cases (perhaps 95% or more in some jurisdictions) result in a guilty plea by the defendant.

As for this observation:

>> ... only a small percentage of the criminals actually get prosecuted.

It is, of course, literally true -- the vast majority of criminals never get caught. I would guess that cops catch less than 5% of the drunk drivers and an even smaller percentage of the recreational drug users. I have seen estimates that 50% or more of all employees steal from their employers and that as many as 75% of all filers cheat on their income taxes -- few of either ever get caught or prosecuted.

On the other hand, while all too many serious crimes, up to and including murder, also go unsolved, cops and prosecutors do vigorously pursue such crimes. There are more than 2 million people in prison in the US -- and this number is just for felons in state or federal prison; it does not include misdemeanants doing time in county and city jails.

You are undoubtedly right that this 2 million, for the most part, represents the dumbest of the dumb.

BTW, I support the death penalty and much preferred being a prosecutor to being defense counsel.

----- jim o\-S