6 ms·

That is really terrifying. I apologize for all of the personal questions, but what were you facing if you went to trial? I am fascinated by this. Honestly, it s

That is really terrifying. I apologize for all of the personal questions, but what were you facing if you went to trial? I am fascinated by this. Honestly, it sounds like you were the victim of one-size-fits-all justice...

deftnerd 13y ago
I'm not a shy person about personal details. They were threatening to give me 99 years in prison for Aggravated Robbery, which is a Class 1 felony, merely because of my inadvertent involvement in the crime. That's on the same level as murder and all of those frightening things. The Jurisdiction was Williamson county, a neighboring county of Austin, TX. They are well-known for their no leniency attitudes.
- swalkergibson 13y ago
  It is truly amazing how fucked up our system is. If they actually believed you "deserved" 99 years, then bargaining down to 6 months suggests that all they really care about is artificially inflating and maintaining their "conviction" rate and not actually, you know, justice or something. Thank you for sharing your experiences, I rarely get the opportunity to discuss things like this. Best of luck to you going forward!
  - moron4hire 13y ago
    That's the maximum possible sentence that can be applied in any circumstance, but it would not have been possible for him to get it. There is a table for each class of crime that cross references the severity of the crime, the number of crimes committed by the person before, and a very small plus or minus factor for how much the judge likes or dislikes you. As a first-time offender, he would have only been eligible for the minimum category, and unless he was a complete dickhead in the courtroom, the judge almost certainly wouldn't have given the minimum of the category. A few months, at the most. This "99 years" bullshit is just gungho DAs trying to scare the shit out of the populace and assert their badassery.
    - swalkergibson 13y ago
      You are correct, that is the maximum. Here is the minimum for Aggravated Robbery (a first degree felony): "Sec. 12.32. FIRST DEGREE FELONY PUNISHMENT. (a) An individual adjudged guilty of a felony of the first degree shall be punished by imprisonment in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for life or for any term of not more than 99 years or less than 5 years. (b) In addition to imprisonment, an individual adjudged guilty of a felony of the first degree may be punished by a fine not to exceed $10,000. Acts 1973, 63rd Leg., p. 883, ch. 399, Sec. 1, eff. Jan. 1, 1974. Renumbered from Penal Code Sec. 12.31 by Acts 1973, 63rd Leg., p. 1124, ch. 426, art. 2, Sec. 2, eff. Jan. 1, 1974. Amended by Acts 1979, 66th Leg., p. 1058, ch. 488, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1979; Acts 1993, 73rd Leg., ch. 900, Sec. 1.01, eff. Sept. 1, 1994. Amended by: Acts 2009, 81st Leg., R.S., Ch. 87, Sec. 25.146, eff. September 1, 2009." I don't know about you, but 5 years seems like a pretty ridiculous risk if 6 months was on the table. That is their game. Prosecutors do not like to go to trial because juries are unpredictable. However, they have the overwhelmingly stronger bargaining position of being able to lock you up and throw away the key. http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/PE/htm/PE.12.htm http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/PE/htm/PE.12.htm
      - jpatokal 13y ago
        Yup. There was an interesting story on HN a few months back about the parallels between plea bargaining and the Inquisition: faced with either, it's very much in your interest to confess and plead guilty, even if you're innocent. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5058703 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5058703
    - gst 13y ago
      In the same situation I'd probably acted the same. Yes, it's likely that the actual sentence would have been much lower. But there's still a very significant chance of spending the rest of your life in jail.
      - tptacek 13y ago
        There was no chance of him spending the rest of his life in jail. That is the point of the preceding comment. Requisite Popehat post: http://www.popehat.com/2013/02/05/crime-whale-sushi-sentence-eleventy-million-years/ http://www.popehat.com/2013/02/05/crime-whale-sushi-sentence...
- wehadfun 13y ago
  Thanks for sharing the details.
- tptacek 13y ago
  Do you remember what made it "aggravated" robbery? Robbery meant there was someone at the target house, right?
  - dannypgh 13y ago
    You're confusing robbery and burglary. The common law definition of robbery is assault + larceny (theft) - that is, it's taking something that's not yours combined with making someone fear imminent harm.
    - tptacek 13y ago
      How do you assault someone who isn't present at the scene of the crime? According to the model penal code, "burglary" is the charge of attempting a felony by surreptitiously breaking into a building. The unique elements of burglary are all about gaining access to buildings. Like you said, robbery is about theft by force. For what it's worth, I asked because Texas has three "aggravated" robbery statutes: robbery with concomitant physical harm to people, robbery using threat of deadly force, and robbery targeting the elderly.
      - dannypgh 13y ago
        I'm not sure what you're asking. The victim of robbery is present for it, of course. I'm pointing out that unless you're seeing something that I'm not, there's no element of a robbery that implies there's a "target house." A common mugging is a robbery. When I think of crimes that target houses, I think of burglary.
        tptacek 13y ago
        Oh, that came from his other comments; he said he drove someone somewhere where that person committed a robbery. I had just assumed it was to somewhere someone lived. The "house" part wasn't important to my question. Sorry to be confusing.
- aspensmonster 13y ago
  Oh God Wilco. Why am I not surprised.
  - deftnerd 13y ago
    Yep. Williamson County. Come on vacation, leave on probation!
- 6d0debc071 13y ago
  Did you have a lawyer? Not criticising here, honestly curious. Lawyer should have shown you sentencing guidelines and talked about averages and probability.
  - deftnerd 13y ago
    My family hired a lawyer for me. Unfortunately, it was a "good ol boy" lawyer who was more concerned with her relationship with the prosecutors office. They told her to accept the plea bargain, and she told me to take it since it's the best that I'll ever get. I was young and impressionable and didn't even think of getting another lawyer. To this day, I do everything within my power to avoid that County. Anecdotal evidence among my friends indicates that I'm not the only one that avoids Williamson County, the county just to the North of Austin, because of a fear of the unchecked legal system there
    - 6d0debc071 13y ago
      Damn, I'm sorry that happened. Thank you for sharing. I wish that young people heard your sort of story in school.

deftnerd 13y ago

I'm not a shy person about personal details. They were threatening to give me 99 years in prison for Aggravated Robbery, which is a Class 1 felony, merely because of my inadvertent involvement in the crime. That's on the same level as murder and all of those frightening things. The Jurisdiction was Williamson county, a neighboring county of Austin, TX. They are well-known for their no leniency attitudes.

swalkergibson 13y ago
It is truly amazing how fucked up our system is. If they actually believed you "deserved" 99 years, then bargaining down to 6 months suggests that all they really care about is artificially inflating and maintaining their "conviction" rate and not actually, you know, justice or something. Thank you for sharing your experiences, I rarely get the opportunity to discuss things like this. Best of luck to you going forward!
- moron4hire 13y ago
  That's the maximum possible sentence that can be applied in any circumstance, but it would not have been possible for him to get it. There is a table for each class of crime that cross references the severity of the crime, the number of crimes committed by the person before, and a very small plus or minus factor for how much the judge likes or dislikes you. As a first-time offender, he would have only been eligible for the minimum category, and unless he was a complete dickhead in the courtroom, the judge almost certainly wouldn't have given the minimum of the category. A few months, at the most. This "99 years" bullshit is just gungho DAs trying to scare the shit out of the populace and assert their badassery.
  - swalkergibson 13y ago
    You are correct, that is the maximum. Here is the minimum for Aggravated Robbery (a first degree felony): "Sec. 12.32. FIRST DEGREE FELONY PUNISHMENT. (a) An individual adjudged guilty of a felony of the first degree shall be punished by imprisonment in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for life or for any term of not more than 99 years or less than 5 years. (b) In addition to imprisonment, an individual adjudged guilty of a felony of the first degree may be punished by a fine not to exceed $10,000. Acts 1973, 63rd Leg., p. 883, ch. 399, Sec. 1, eff. Jan. 1, 1974. Renumbered from Penal Code Sec. 12.31 by Acts 1973, 63rd Leg., p. 1124, ch. 426, art. 2, Sec. 2, eff. Jan. 1, 1974. Amended by Acts 1979, 66th Leg., p. 1058, ch. 488, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1979; Acts 1993, 73rd Leg., ch. 900, Sec. 1.01, eff. Sept. 1, 1994. Amended by: Acts 2009, 81st Leg., R.S., Ch. 87, Sec. 25.146, eff. September 1, 2009." I don't know about you, but 5 years seems like a pretty ridiculous risk if 6 months was on the table. That is their game. Prosecutors do not like to go to trial because juries are unpredictable. However, they have the overwhelmingly stronger bargaining position of being able to lock you up and throw away the key. http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/PE/htm/PE.12.htm http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/PE/htm/PE.12.htm
    - jpatokal 13y ago
      Yup. There was an interesting story on HN a few months back about the parallels between plea bargaining and the Inquisition: faced with either, it's very much in your interest to confess and plead guilty, even if you're innocent. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5058703 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5058703
  - gst 13y ago
    In the same situation I'd probably acted the same. Yes, it's likely that the actual sentence would have been much lower. But there's still a very significant chance of spending the rest of your life in jail.
    - tptacek 13y ago
      There was no chance of him spending the rest of his life in jail. That is the point of the preceding comment. Requisite Popehat post: http://www.popehat.com/2013/02/05/crime-whale-sushi-sentence-eleventy-million-years/ http://www.popehat.com/2013/02/05/crime-whale-sushi-sentence...
wehadfun 13y ago
Thanks for sharing the details.
tptacek 13y ago
Do you remember what made it "aggravated" robbery? Robbery meant there was someone at the target house, right?
- dannypgh 13y ago
  You're confusing robbery and burglary. The common law definition of robbery is assault + larceny (theft) - that is, it's taking something that's not yours combined with making someone fear imminent harm.
  - tptacek 13y ago
    How do you assault someone who isn't present at the scene of the crime? According to the model penal code, "burglary" is the charge of attempting a felony by surreptitiously breaking into a building. The unique elements of burglary are all about gaining access to buildings. Like you said, robbery is about theft by force. For what it's worth, I asked because Texas has three "aggravated" robbery statutes: robbery with concomitant physical harm to people, robbery using threat of deadly force, and robbery targeting the elderly.
    - dannypgh 13y ago
      I'm not sure what you're asking. The victim of robbery is present for it, of course. I'm pointing out that unless you're seeing something that I'm not, there's no element of a robbery that implies there's a "target house." A common mugging is a robbery. When I think of crimes that target houses, I think of burglary.
      - tptacek 13y ago
        Oh, that came from his other comments; he said he drove someone somewhere where that person committed a robbery. I had just assumed it was to somewhere someone lived. The "house" part wasn't important to my question. Sorry to be confusing.
aspensmonster 13y ago
Oh God Wilco. Why am I not surprised.
- deftnerd 13y ago
  Yep. Williamson County. Come on vacation, leave on probation!
6d0debc071 13y ago
Did you have a lawyer? Not criticising here, honestly curious. Lawyer should have shown you sentencing guidelines and talked about averages and probability.
- deftnerd 13y ago
  My family hired a lawyer for me. Unfortunately, it was a "good ol boy" lawyer who was more concerned with her relationship with the prosecutors office. They told her to accept the plea bargain, and she told me to take it since it's the best that I'll ever get. I was young and impressionable and didn't even think of getting another lawyer. To this day, I do everything within my power to avoid that County. Anecdotal evidence among my friends indicates that I'm not the only one that avoids Williamson County, the county just to the North of Austin, because of a fear of the unchecked legal system there
  - 6d0debc071 13y ago
    Damn, I'm sorry that happened. Thank you for sharing. I wish that young people heard your sort of story in school.