Seems Jodias Arias almost got away with murder. How often do people get away with murder?

When I was a kid, I figured anyone who ever did something bad would be punished for it. There is a legal system for it, and even when that failed (rarely) there was still something like divine justice, one way or another, they’ll get you!

I no longer believe that.

Getting someone for murder is a combination of luck, good detective work, and incompetent criminals. How often do you think murderers get away with their crime? How many murders remain unsolved?

…A case that’s still undergoing its trial is what broke your belief in an infallible justice system? They indicted her just over a month after the murder, they’re in a questioning phase right now, and you’re calling that “almost got away with it”?

You’re pretty naive if you believe the justice system is “infallible.”

Well exactly, but I’m just agog that this is the case that brought this poster to reality on the subject.

That’s reality for you. A lot of times there isn’t enough evidence to say conclusively that someone committed murder. Different legal systems had dealt with this in different ways over the years. In the current U.S. system the idea is you can’t convict unless you’re certain. If you only think they did it but you have some doubts (which often happens) you have to find them not guilty. In most cases though, the prosecutors know whether or not they have enough evidence to convict. They aren’t going to waste their time if they know there is reasonable doubt present. Sometimes though there are cases where the evidence is mostly circumstantial, and the prosecutors will sometimes go forward knowing that it’s the only chance they are going to get at putting the killer behind bars.

But all of this assumes that you solve the case or at least narrow it down to a single suspect. That doesn’t always happen. According to a 2010 article in the New York Times, the national clearance rate for murders has dropped from 90 percent in the 1960s to less than 65 percent in recent years. That means that about 1 in 3 murders don’t get solved and their murderers don’t even go to trial. According to the same article, that works out to about 6,000 people per year getting away with murder.

If the case does go to trial, the conviction rate is somewhere around 85 percent or so (seems to vary a bit depending on whose statistics you pick).

Article from 2009

Or one person getting away with 6,000 murders!

The FBI publishes national and regional crime statistics if anyone wants more information on this. the 2012 report isn’t final yet, but apparently for 2011 the clearance rate for murder and nonnegligent manslaughter was only 64.8%, and that necessarily includes only known crimes.

Of course, a certain number of “solved” murders are going to end up with the wrong person being convicted, so those should be considered in the “getting away with murder” statistics.

I think she seems like a fun date…I mean aside from the gruesome murder.

Some respondents are starting with the wrong numbers.
The first way to get away with murder is if the victim is never have discovered to have died–you kill a homeless person and hide the body–and no one even reports the person missing. Or even if the disappearance is reported–tens of thousands of people disappear every year (she met a guy and left with him to start a new life…)
The second way is if the authorities are convinced it is an accident, natural causes–you and the victim go mountain climbing and the “victim slips and falls”, or the gun “misfires by accident”.
The third way is if the authorities are convinced it is a suicide.
The fourth way is if the authorities are convinced it is self-defense (look at the Zimmerman type situation–although we don’t know the result and we really don’t know if he is innocent or not).
It is only the fifth way, the authorities are convinced it is murder but no one is convicted–that previous respondents are discussing.

How about people charged with murder but plea bargain it down to manslaughter? Us unwashed masses would say it was murder; the DA would say it’s a case off the books; the criminal would say it’s less years in jail. The deceased wouldn’t say anything.