Ashcroft Reducing Plea Bargain Discretion

[The Sushi Bandit]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48370-2003Sep22.html

WASHINGTON - Federal prosecutors were ordered Monday by Attorney General John Ashcroft to pursue maximum criminal charges and sentences whenever possible and to seek lesser penalties through plea bargains only in limited circumstances.

[TahitiNut]

1. Isn't that insightful?

Asscrack sees sentencing ranges as tactical and having little or nothing to do with extenuating circumstances or degree of culpability.

Clearly, the 'tactical' viewpoint seems to presume a prosecutorial objective, not of justice, but of always "going for the gold" of maximum incarceration -- as though it were some judge's score for the prosecutor, like in figure skating. In elevating the (purported) principle of "consistency" he's diminishing the variance in human beings and our behavior.

I think this is an obscene corruption of a Justice "system."

[liberalmuse]

2. Ashcroft needs

to return back to the Dark Ages where he belongs. This is despicable!

[Media_Lies_Daily]

3. When do we regress to every crime being punishable by death?

[Democat]

4. Ashcroft wants to control all the power in the U.S.

Instead of allowing individual Federal prosecutors to decide, one guy in Washington tells them all what to do.

But Republicans are for less government and less Federal government power.

[DoNotRefill]

5. GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know that sounds strange, but hear me out. The plea bargaining system is currently well and truly fucked. It's used to get convictions in "marginal" cases and cases where the government doesn't want to take the person to trial.

My main complaint with plea bargaining is that it leads to overcharging in an attempt to have a stronger position for the government to bargain from. They know they only have the resources to try a tiny fraction of cases, so they'll overcharge the person, bargain off some of those charges, to get a guilty plea, regardless of the guilt or innocence of the parties. Here's the thing...the overcharged offenses are practically ALWAYS bogus.

The entire plea bargain system is a total affront to the idea of Justice. It's a fucking disgrace. ANYTHING that damages that is OK in my book, even if put forth by Asscrack. People need to demand their rights...Trial by a jury of their peers.