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If you ask me the plea bargaining system has flushed
our right to get a jury trial down the toilet.
You can accept a plea bargain and plead guilty to your alleged crimes and get a reasonable prison sentence. On the other hand if you demand a jury trial because you are innocent, and you are convicted you will get a draconian sentence which will almost certainly put you in prison for the rest of your life. I know two people Laro Nicol and Kevin Walsh who accepted plea bargains for crimes they were innocent of, because they didn't want to risk going to prison for the rest of their life if they demanded a trial and were convicted. Laro Nicol took a 2 year prison sentence in a plea bargain to avoid possibly getting 40+ years for the crime of having a part that could convert a AR-15 from a single shot weapon into a machine gun. Kevin Walsh accepted a 6 month prison sentence to avoid getting 40+ years in prison for assaulting a Phoenix cop. I don't know if Kevin Ring in this article is guilty or innocent, but it is certainly unfair to give him a draconian sentence for claiming to be innocent and demanding a jury trial. Abramoff aide could face up to 22-year term Unlike others in case, he chose trial by Nedra Pickler - Aug. 31, 2011 12:00 AM Associated Press WASHINGTON - Prosecutors are recommending that a little-known defendant in the Abramoff lobbying scandal get 17 to 22 years in prison for treating government officials to meals and event tickets - a sentence that would exceed the time served by all 20 other defendants in the conspiracy combined. The reason for the discrepancy? Former lobbyist Kevin Ring refused to admit his guilt and unsuccessfully fought charges at trial. "That's a pretty big penalty for exercising a constitutional right," U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle remarked during a hearing Tuesday over Ring's sentencing recommendation. Justice Department attorney Nathaniel Edmonds responded that a stiff sentence would not be a punishment for going to trial. He said that cooperating defendants are rewarded with leniency, a distinction repeatedly upheld by the Supreme Court and frequently used in prosecutions. "It's not retaliation," Edmonds insisted over grumbling from Ring's supporters in the courtroom's public benches. The government's recommendation for Ring would dwarf the sentences of even the leading figures in the influence-peddling conspiracy that shook up Washington. The ringleader, Jack Abramoff, was sentenced to six years in prison. Michael Scanlon, Abramoff's partner in a kickback scam bilking clients out of tens of millions of dollars, was sentenced to 20 months. Bob Ney, a six-term Ohio Republican congressman and the only lawmaker convicted in the scheme of trading gifts for favors, got 30 months. After two trials, Ring, an Abramoff deputy from Kensington, Md., was convicted of five felony counts including conspiracy, payment of a gratuity and honest-services wire fraud. The first jury couldn't agree on his guilt, so he had a second trial that led to his conviction in November. He was accused of bribing public officials with meals at fancy restaurants and tickets to sporting events and concerts, but he tried to argue he was only doing a lobbyist's work of building relationships with government figures. Other lobbyists who worked for Abramoff and were accused of similar conduct usually got off with probation, fines or time in a halfway house. None of the public officials - two Capitol Hill aides and a special assistant for legislative affairs in the George W. Bush administration's Justice Department - who accepted nights out with Ring and admitted doing favors for him in exchange were given any time behind bars. But those defendants all reached plea deals with prosecutors in which they admitted their guilt in exchange for a negotiated charge. |