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Not having grown up in the US, I listened in fascination to the first episodes of Serial season 3, “... Cleveland. Not for one extraordinary case; instead, Seri

Not having grown up in the US, I listened in fascination to the first episodes of Serial season 3, “... Cleveland. Not for one extraordinary case; instead, Serial wanted to tackle the whole criminal justice system. To do that we figured we’d need to look at something different: ordinary cases.” After a few episodes I had to take a break. It is so upsetting. Justice is not a reality. https://serialpodcast.org/season-three/about https://serialpodcast.org/season-three/about ““Charge stacking” is a process by which police and prosecutors create a case with numerous charges or numerous instances of the same charge to convince the defendant that the risk of not pleading guilty is intolerable. The defendant may be convinced to plead guilty to a few of the charges in return for not being prosecuted for the remaining charges.“ https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courtroom_Workgroup https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courtroom_Workgroup

tptacek 7y ago
Hutchins had exceptionally talented representation (one of his lawyers, whose name appears on the plea agreement, is a nationally recognized authority). There is no chance that "charge stacking" intimidated him; his lawyers certainly would have informed him that the charges he faced would group, and that he'd in effect serve time based on the guideline range for the worst charge he was convicted of.
- lloydde 7y ago
  This is really good information, though I marvel at your certainty that Hutchins was unintimidated. I suspect few have the constitution you suggest to stay a rational actor when facing years behind jail. It sounds like a sentencing date has not been announced: "According to a copy of Hutchins’ plea agreement, both charges each carry a maximum of up to five years in prison, and up to a $250,000 fine, and up to one year of supervised release. However, those charges are likely to be substantially tempered by federal sentencing guidelines, and may take into account time already served in detention. It remains unclear when he will be sentenced." https://krebsonsecurity.com/2019/04/marcus-malwaretech-hutchins-pleads-guilty-to-writing-selling-banking-malware/ https://krebsonsecurity.com/2019/04/marcus-malwaretech-hutch...
  - tptacek 7y ago
    I'm not saying he was confident about the whole process. I'm saying that he was certainly informed as to how federal charges group in sentencing. In federal sentencing, in general, and in particular with these charges, "like" counts group. In effect, you serve the time for the "worst" charge you're convicted of. You do not add the sentences for all the counts together to determine a sentencing. As the article says, and as you'll find if you read the plea agreement and then consult the chart in the federal sentencing guidelines, he's not facing anything close to 5 years.
    - lloydde 7y ago
      Wow tptacek, thank you for all the insights. It’s a shame then that Kreb uses softening language “likely to be” when there is such confidence that Hutchins will serve little time. Though I imagine all jail time is slow time. I’m only learning now how separate the federal prison system is and it appears to have somewhat better conditions.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]

tptacek 7y ago

Hutchins had exceptionally talented representation (one of his lawyers, whose name appears on the plea agreement, is a nationally recognized authority). There is no chance that "charge stacking" intimidated him; his lawyers certainly would have informed him that the charges he faced would group, and that he'd in effect serve time based on the guideline range for the worst charge he was convicted of.

lloydde 7y ago
This is really good information, though I marvel at your certainty that Hutchins was unintimidated. I suspect few have the constitution you suggest to stay a rational actor when facing years behind jail. It sounds like a sentencing date has not been announced: "According to a copy of Hutchins’ plea agreement, both charges each carry a maximum of up to five years in prison, and up to a $250,000 fine, and up to one year of supervised release. However, those charges are likely to be substantially tempered by federal sentencing guidelines, and may take into account time already served in detention. It remains unclear when he will be sentenced." https://krebsonsecurity.com/2019/04/marcus-malwaretech-hutchins-pleads-guilty-to-writing-selling-banking-malware/ https://krebsonsecurity.com/2019/04/marcus-malwaretech-hutch...
- tptacek 7y ago
  I'm not saying he was confident about the whole process. I'm saying that he was certainly informed as to how federal charges group in sentencing. In federal sentencing, in general, and in particular with these charges, "like" counts group. In effect, you serve the time for the "worst" charge you're convicted of. You do not add the sentences for all the counts together to determine a sentencing. As the article says, and as you'll find if you read the plea agreement and then consult the chart in the federal sentencing guidelines, he's not facing anything close to 5 years.
  - lloydde 7y ago
    Wow tptacek, thank you for all the insights. It’s a shame then that Kreb uses softening language “likely to be” when there is such confidence that Hutchins will serve little time. Though I imagine all jail time is slow time. I’m only learning now how separate the federal prison system is and it appears to have somewhat better conditions.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]