Plea bargain

[eu.ro]

Hello everyone,

I'm still trying to become familiar with the American jurisprudence and I've just stumbled over a describtion that's confusing me.

In an article on findlaw.com about plea bargains appears the following passage:

Finally, prosecutors may use plea bargains to circumvent laws they don't agree with. For instance, a prosecutor may disagree with laws prohibiting possession for personal use of small amounts of marijuana, so the prosecutor's office may have an unwritten policy of giving all such offenders "offers they can't refuse," such as a $25 fine and 10 hours of community service. Or, in some cases, the prosecutor may simply dismiss the case in the interests of justice.

Read the whole article here: criminal.findlaw.com/articles/1491.html

They are allowed to "circumvent laws they don't agree with"? How far does that go?

May someone explain that to me?

Yours,

euro.

[Anony+]

thorsten said:

Hello everyone,

I'm still trying to become familiar with the American jurisprudence and I've just stumbled over a describtion that's confusing me.

In an article on findlaw.com about plea bargains appears the following passage:

Finally, prosecutors may use plea bargains to circumvent laws they don't agree with. For instance, a prosecutor may disagree with laws prohibiting possession for personal use of small amounts of marijuana, so the prosecutor's office may have an unwritten policy of giving all such offenders "offers they can't refuse," such as a $25 fine and 10 hours of community service. Or, in some cases, the prosecutor may simply dismiss the case in the interests of justice.

Read the whole article here: criminal.findlaw.com/articles/1491.html

They are allowed to "circumvent laws they don't agree with"? How far does that go?

May someone explain that to me?

Yours,

euro.

Basically, prosecutors have very WIDE discretion in all matters that come before them. Discretion to charge or not charge someone, what to charge them with, whether to allow them to plead to lesser sentences, whether to seek the death penalty, etc etc. It's a very powerful position, obviously subject to abuse, but in the end they're accountable to their constituents, so that would hopefully keep them in check.

Let me give you one example:

20 year old male has sex with a 15 year old female. She says it wasn't consentual. There is some physical evidence of the lack of consent. The district attorney has many options, including:

Indict as rape;
Indict as statutory rape;
Indict as sexual battery.

They can indict for all of the charges and then offer to take rape and sexual battery off the table in return for a plea to statutory rape. Their motivation for allowing the plea to the lesser charge could be that their case for straight rape and sexual battery isn't too strong. Or their motivation for taking rape off the table may be because the DA is an SOB male who thinks the victim deserved what she got because she dressed scantily and went to a bar when she was underaged. (I'm making all this up as I go along here.......). But we, in fact, might not ever know the true motivations. All we know is that a plea to a lesser charge was permitted.

Usually, judges will go along with such pleas, because they trust that the DA knows their case, and knows what is best. But judges are allowed to reject plea bargains, so there is at least THAT check and balance worked into the system.

So prosecutors are allowed to go pretty far, but have judges and their voting constituents to keep them in line.

Does that help explain it?

Allison

[Donnie]

thorsten said:

How far does that go?

Juries can do it too.

Cops can do it. After I got out of the Navy and sold the house that I had shared with two other officers, I was homeless. My MGB roadster wasn't really a good car to try and sleep in even in California, unless I was really really drunk. But then I was sore when I woke up. But I had a sleeping bag. So I dropped by the house that was shared by some of the sailors who were still on the boat. I told them I woud watch the house for them while they were away if I could sleep outside on their little patio. They said I could sleep on the couch. But that was way too scary looking. So I told them I didn't want to impose and there was an old foam mattress from the boat out there anyway. Those were the most comfortable mattresses I had ever slept on until about a year ago. When they weren't out at sea I would often hang out with them in the house. One night we were all hanging out listerning to Foghat. They were passing a joint around and Joe's pickup truck was parked on the street in front of the house. It was a Ford three quarter ton four-wheel drive with a standard transmission. All of a sudden we heard a loud crash. So we mosied out the front door. The boys didn't do anything fast at that point because they were pretty smoked up. Where Joe's truck used to be there was some sedan with the front end stove in and two big bumps in the windshield. Joes' truck was about a half a block down the street. So somebody wandered back into the house and called an ambulance. A couple of Hell's Angels crawled out of the car. We all stood around with them and talked about what a cool wreck it was. Then somebody mentioned to tone of the Angels that his face was cut up a bit and maybe he should check it out. It actually looked like two pounds of juicy fresh hamburger, dripping blood. So we all wandered back into the house and Joe showed the Angels his chopper, which he kept in one of the bedrooms. Then hamburger face went into the bathroom and looked in the mirror. He said something like, "Wow, awsome!" and picked some of the shards of glass out. I think he was contemplating how many to leave in to get the best effect. Then somebody mentioned that an ambulance had been called. Both of the Angels were bummed out at that, because they were high on speed and whiskey and the their trunk was full of hard-core porn and there were a couple of sawed-off shotguns in the backseat. Back in those days hard-core porn was still illegal. Just about then a cop wandered in the open front door looking for the driver of the car. Everybody was like, "oh shucks," (or words to that effect) because there was dope and bongs and roaches and alligator clips all over, plus the stash which was on a shoulder-high shelf in the open hall closet. It was like something right out of a Cheech and Chong movie. There was no way the officers didn't see the Mary Jane and smell it. I think there was a little coke around too because a couple of the boys were dabbling a bit. I was thinking, "Dam, I'm going to get busted and I don't even do the she it". But the boys in blue were not interested in any of that because they had already seen the shotguns and open containers in the wrecked car. They did ask us to turn down the Foghat so they could read the Angels their rights.