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Exactly. Lowest priority means it will only get trotted out as an extra charge for additional negotiation leverage when they're throwing the book at someone th
by throwaway0a5e 5y ago
Exactly. Lowest priority means it will only get trotted out as an extra charge for additional negotiation leverage when they're throwing the book at someone they really want to screw or to give a veneer of legitimacy to a contempt of cop arrest.
- iammisc 5y agoThe whole idea of 'throwing the book at someone' must end. Either people should be treated equally (i.e., everyone have the same book thrown at them) or the laws that most people aren't charged with ought to be removed from the books.
- throwaway0a5e 5y agoI'm a proponent of "single charge per case". If the cops go for the big headline grabbing charge the penalties are still plenty stiff but it removes a huge amount of the incentive for people to take bad plea deals and removes an opportunity for the cops to abusively charge people with stuff with the expectation of them wasting money, the excessive charges being dropped and the realistic ones sticking. If someone burns a building down killing someone or a drug deal goes bad ending in a shootout then the prosecution can either pick murder or the lesser charge. Either charge will put them away long enough and if it was really a murder then adding arson or drug dealing on top doesn't really change anything but it makes it hard for the cops to charge someone with murder when the fact pattern doesn't justify that since they'll go to court and beat the charge.