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THE TRIAL TAX

By "Captain Liberty" and "Rumpole"

Here's the problem: You go to court on a third degree felony or a misdemeanor case and the state makes an offer and the attorney asks the court to make a lower offer and the court declines because if the court makes an offer and it is rejected and then the case goes to trial, the judge can't sentence the defendant to anything higher because if s/he does it is a vindictive sentence. The judges have all had this scenario beaten into their judicial brains between margaritas and shrimp cocktails at their judicial "seminars". OK. So be it. But lets think about this: What is really happening is that by declining to make a plea offer the Judge is doing two things: 1) Abandoning their ability to review a case and exercise discretion to keep prosecutors in check...continue to full post

Full post as published by Justice Building Blog on September 16, 2009 (boomark / email).