A criminal justice watchdog says some defendants have found a cheat code in New Orleans to better their chances of beating the rap: let the judge decide their fate, rather than take their chances with a jury.
The New Orleans Metro Crime commission discovered something when analyzing criminal cases in New Orleans: two judges were getting a much higher number of defendants waiving their right to a jury than the rest of the court -- and defendants were getting acquitted more than 75 percent of the time.
"That's statistically unlikely that those two judges would get that percentage of bad cases," said Crime Commission President Rafael Goyeneche. "That's more an indication of the defense counsel recognizing what we documents in our report, that those two judges have a distorted view of the burden of proof."
Goyeneche says in more than 30 states, and in federal criminal cases, it takes prosecutor's approval for defendants to forgo a jury trial.
Goyeneche says state senator Jay Morris has filed legislation, including amending the state constitution, to make that the case for Louisiana, too.
The legislative session starts March 9.