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Plea bargains bother me, in general, because they conflate two distinct ideas: 1) I am guilty of the charges 2) I believe I am not guilty, but I believe that
by JabavuAdams 13y ago
Plea bargains bother me, in general, because they conflate two distinct ideas:
1) I am guilty of the charges
2) I believe I am not guilty, but I believe that I will be found guilty, nonetheless. To limit my risk of a bad outcome, I'm pleading guilty to lesser charges.
These are very, very different. Number (2) is actually an indictment of the system, not of the accused.
Is there a way to formally declare (2)?
- mikegagnon 13y agoI believe a "no contest" plea is a formal declaration of (2). See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nolo_contendere http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nolo_contendere
- nknighthb 13y agoIn the US, an "Alford plea"[1] is a clearer vehicle for a protestation of actual innocence wrapped in a plea of legally guilty (or at least convict-able). [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alford_plea http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alford_plea
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- bcbrown 13y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alford_plea http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alford_plea
- wisty 13y agoThey are also disturbing because they increase maximum prison times. If real criminals are getting short sentences (because they were smart, and took a plea bargain), then politicians will be forced to increase sentences. Eventually, you reach a state where the maximum sentences are insanely high, to compensate for the fact that criminals will always get them discounted.