Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Details on 19

Relative gets stabbed by abusive boyfriend trying to save his aunt.

4 comments:

Maurice Bradbury said...

Wait, I'm confused, the "nephew" and the "relative" are the same person, right?

John Galt said...

Regarding the 'need' to clear the circuit court using plea-bargain deals, my response is ...


Bullcrap.

Provide the additional court & prosecutorial capacity and convict the bastards at trial.

What is this crap that we have to lighten the sentences to make plea-bargains easier for defense attorneys ???

ppatin said...

Galt:

Do you have any concept how much more we'd have to spend on the court system if we wanted every criminal case to go to trial? We're not talking a ten, fifty or even one hundred percent increase here. From what I recall the Baltimore City Circuit has the resources to try FIVE percent of criminal cases. Do you honestly believe it's possible to spends twenty times more on the courts, the State's Attorney's Office and the Public Defender's Office? The idea that every case should be tried and that there shouldn't be plea bargains sounds nice, but it's as unrealistic as my plan to to hang all murderers and repeat violent felons and to bring back public flogging. A nice dream, but will never happen in reality.

John Galt said...

Well, the rush to clear the docket is why the State's Attorney lets all tehse creeps off with a slap on the wrist.

Here's a thought:

a statutory minimum on the percentage of the maximum penalty if a plea deal is cut. Give them an incentive to avoid trial, but a relatively smaller one which does not make the clearing of the docket a burden on the victim population.

Also, the SA should not be permitted to drop charges entirely, unless it files documentation to the effect that it was mistaken in bringing them in the first place, and begs the court's pardon.