For better or for worse (quite often for the worse) our modern legal system is pretty much built around the plea bargain. Prosecutors love them because they don’t have to expend the substantial resources it would take to bring every case to trial. Defense attorneys love them because they can negotiate lesser punishments for their clients. Judges love them because they make it possible to move far more cases through their courtrooms in a timely manner. In fact our legal system is so dependent on plea bargains that the whole thing would grind to a virtual standstill if most defendants insisted on going to trial.
So from the standpoint of “efficiency” plea bargains are great. From the standpoint of making sure each person charged with a crime gets a chance to argue their case and is sentenced appropriately for their actions, not so much.
I would add that the local elected DA also can use these deals at the next election as evidence of so many ‘successful prosecutions’, helping to keep the community safe, blah blah blah. I’d love to dig into it to see how all the sausage is made.
Yes, I’ve heard this before. Makes me want to make and hold up a sign in front of the city jail/intake center and courthouse that reads something like Always Plead NOT Guilty, Never Take a Plea Deal! Never Waive Any Rights! Don’t Sign Anything! First amendment, right?
If ALL people charged with crimes simultaneously refused to take a plea deal they might end up in a collectively better position. But there’s still a strong motive for any INDIVIDUAL defendant to take a plea deal because those who do end up going to trial tend to get much harsher sentences than those who don’t.
For example, if a defendant is facing a sexual assault charge and has a chance to plead out for misdemeanor battery then they’d be a fool to push their luck in front of a jury. (This is one reason so many sex criminals escape accountability).
There’s something almost poetic about getting 45 for worshipping 45. It would be far better if the 45 were months or years though. These pus pockets will just come out with bragging rights unfortunately.
You can and those of us who have had to take plea bargains will continue to ignore it. A couple of years ago I was charged with a bullshit disorderly conduct charge at a protest. If sentenced to the maximum I was looking at only thirty days. I had excellent, free legal counsel who wanted nothing more than to fight the charges. The plea deal on offer was a 3 month unsupervised probation and a cleared record. I was 100% innocent of the charge as written, had a great lawyer, offers to pay my court fees, and still took the plea, because just the act of fighting the charge in court would keep me out of work long enough to be worse than the alternative and if I lost it would have been flatly devastating. Most people looking at pleas are in an even more lopsided choice than I faced, so yeah everyone knows the system is broken and evil, but turning down the plea generally means just throwing yourself under the tank treads.
Meanwhile black men are rotting in jail for years for having a joint in their glovebox. If they’re the lucky ones who weren’t murdered by cop for it, that is. Sigh.
Exactly. My thoughts - “you’re stupid, willfully ignorant assholes that are doomed to a pathetic existence” and my prayer - “I wish you a remnant of life even more mediocre than you’ve been living up to this point in your sad, sorry time infecting this planet with your ignorance and doltishness.”
