4 ms·
What they do is tell people that if they don’t admit to a lesser crime and accept its punishment they’ll be charged with a greater crime that carries a mandator
by jtc331 9y ago
What they do is tell people that if they don’t admit to a lesser crime and accept its punishment they’ll be charged with a greater crime that carries a mandatory minimum sentence of a much longer period of time.
Given that innocence or guilt doesn’t enter into that equation at all, it sounds very much like textbook extortion.
- s73ver_ 9y agoNo. Again, you are completely mischaracterizing what they do. It is clear you are not interested in a good faith discussion on the topic, and would rather just rant about government. Feel free, but I won't partake.
- shkkmo 9y agoIt's actually a pretty accurate description of pretty typical prosecutor behavior. The prosecutors can use not only threats of charges that cary life-time sentences, they can also threaten charges that cary the death penalty and charges against the suspect's family and friends. All of that is legal. These plea deals can be time limited so that the suspect and their lawyer have to decide on the deal prior to going through any sort of discovery to even know what the evidence against them is. Whether you call what is done by many prosecutors "extortion" is pointless semantics and doesn't really bear on the article. However the process of offering and negotiating plea deals is in need of a great deal of reform. There are proposals of Judge oversight of the plea process, providing faster bench trials, and more funding for the legal system so that trials can be processed faster. see: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/05/plea-bargaining-courts-prosecutors/524112/ https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/05/plea-ba...