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It is not uncommon in my experience for victims to keep on getting victimized by the very prosecution and judicial process that is supposed to be working for th

It is not uncommon in my experience for victims to keep on getting victimized by the very prosecution and judicial process that is supposed to be working for them. As an example, during a home invasion the perpetrator came into our home wielding a knife looking to kill a family member (or more). Fortunately the perpetrator was overcome after much physical altercation by multiple family members. In his prosecution the perpetrator was not charged with attempted murder even though that's what he was doing (and yelling). The prosecutor charged him with burglary on the basis that it had the same maximum (25 year) sentence as attempted murder but a much lower burden of proof. So he was more likely to get a prosecution (and career advancement). We did not care if the prosecution was successful. We wanted him charged for what he did, whether it failed in the courts or not. We came away from the experience more feeling like victims from the entire judicial process than from the attempted murder (which we actually did something to thwart). The same type of story gets told over and over again by victims. Punishment is doing nothing for the victims who I know.

saghm 4y ago
> The prosecutor charged him with burglary on the basis that it had the same maximum (25 year) sentence as attempted murder but a much lower burden of proof. Not doubting your story, but this seems like a very weird reason to me; there's no reason they couldn't be charged with both, and it's extremely common for juries to return different verdicts for each charge when a defendant is charged with multiple. I'd be interested to see statistics about whether charging someone with murder along with burglary results in fewer convictions for the burglary charge, because it doesn't seem super obvious that it would be the case; I would think that the idea that the jury could "split" the verdict by convicting on the lesser charge if they were having trouble coming to an agreement and the fact that alleging someone is an attempted murderer is a stronger reprimand than just calling them a burglar would at least somewhat act as a counterbalance to the chance that the jury would decide to render a not guilty verdict on the burglary charge because they doubted the story due to the murder charge.
- stevenjgarner 4y ago
  No jury. Again it is not up to the victims. Like most prosecutions, it was plea bargained down to a lesser charge (first offense etc). Small district court in a rural US county with population under 20,000, where "everyone" knows "everyone".
- c22 4y ago
  Most cases get resolved through plea deals, not jury trials.

saghm 4y ago

> The prosecutor charged him with burglary on the basis that it had the same maximum (25 year) sentence as attempted murder but a much lower burden of proof. Not doubting your story, but this seems like a very weird reason to me; there's no reason they couldn't be charged with both, and it's extremely common for juries to return different verdicts for each charge when a defendant is charged with multiple. I'd be interested to see statistics about whether charging someone with murder along with burglary results in fewer convictions for the burglary charge, because it doesn't seem super obvious that it would be the case; I would think that the idea that the jury could "split" the verdict by convicting on the lesser charge if they were having trouble coming to an agreement and the fact that alleging someone is an attempted murderer is a stronger reprimand than just calling them a burglar would at least somewhat act as a counterbalance to the chance that the jury would decide to render a not guilty verdict on the burglary charge because they doubted the story due to the murder charge.

stevenjgarner 4y ago
No jury. Again it is not up to the victims. Like most prosecutions, it was plea bargained down to a lesser charge (first offense etc). Small district court in a rural US county with population under 20,000, where "everyone" knows "everyone".
c22 4y ago
Most cases get resolved through plea deals, not jury trials.