Plea Agreements. A good deal for someone who is guilty?

A good deal for the state since plea deals avoid a costly trial?

Here are some plea deals offered vs. actual sentences issued in which I personally realized. I omit the surnames of those mentioned.

Alberto – sexual assault; he was offered a plea bargain to reduce the felony to a misdemeanor, no mandatory sex offender treatment, no annual registration as a sex offender, and a prison term of 4-6 months. He refused, saying, “I’m not guilty.” After 2 trials (the jury deadlocked in the first trial: 10 not guilty; 2 undecided), the second jury convicted him and he was sentenced to 7-1/2 to 15 years.

Michael, sexual assault; he was offered a 1-year plea deal with the stipulation that he had to complete sex offender treatment. He refused, went to trial, and is serving 2 consecutive 3-1/2-7 year sentences (so a possibility of 15 years total).

Carl, sexual assault; he was offered 2 to 6 years as a plea bargain. He refused, pleading innocence; he was found guilty and sentenced to 7-1/2 to 15 years plus 6-12 years, suspended, if he behaves according to the first sentence.

Are these plea agreements fair to the defendant? Are they fair to the victim? Are they fair to the public?

In New Hampshire, case law governs plea bargains. “…(They) have been openly recognized as part of the criminal process since 1970, despite the fact that they existed…since time immemorial.” (State v. Manoly., 1970) This is also the case in virtually all other states.

Both defendants and prosecutors use plea bargains and plea agreements. Because?

Obviously, if a guilty plea can be successfully negotiated, the expense of a trial can be avoided.

If the crime has traumatized the victim, a trial sometimes exacerbates that trauma even further. Some victims refuse to testify or fear the idea of ​​facing their perpetrators again. Think: if you were brutally raped, beaten or terrorized for hours, pistol-whipped, etc., how would you feel going through a trial for hours or days, seeing the person who offended you? Would he be able to face the relentless questioning by lawyers about the incident, about his personal life, and with the public watching, with the possibility of details in the newspaper and on television?

So would you be grateful if a plea deal was reached and the person who committed a crime was punished without further involvement from you?

Or, on the other hand: What if you were willing to testify against this person and wanted him or her to receive the full penalty under the law, and then the state offered you a plea bargain? What if that sentence could have been 10-20 years if he/she was convicted by a jury and the plea agreement was 2-4 years? Would you feel cheated? Would the public feel misled, thinking that this person should have been given the full weight of the law and should not have been able to receive a shorter sentence just for pleading guilty?

In anticipation of this article, I asked an inmate at Concord Men’s Prison how he felt about plea bargains. (He had rejected one in his case and been sentenced to triple the plea deal.) He said: “He’s being punished for exercising his right to a trial, if he’s offered a 2-year plea deal, and you tell him he’ll get up to 20 years if he loses at his trial.” In other words, `If he insists that he is entitled to a trial, we will convict him and give him two, three times, etc. more years in prison than if he accepts our offer.

Atti. Michael Skibbie, former head of the Concord Public Defender’s Office. NH, stated the following to a legislative committee:

“The overwhelming majority of cases in this country and in New Hampshire are resolved by plea, not trial. Nationwide, 80 to 90% of felony cases are resolved by plea.” “Less than 10% of the felony cases we (Public Defender) handle actually go to a jury trial.”

He went on to explain why this happens, including the difficulty of trying to predict how a jury would react to the evidence, the defendant, and the alleged victim. He said: “I have won cases I was sure I would lose, and I have lost cases I was sure I would win. And most experienced criminal defense attorneys would tell you the same thing.” And prosecutors could say the same. “Obviously, both sides are taking a risk when they go to trial.”

I mentioned earlier that settling a plea bargain case avoids big expenses. Atti. Skibbie also stated how plea deals free the court from a monumental amount of cases. Imagine, if 90% of felony cases were settled now and that stopped! If you think the court system is clogged now with backlogs (which they are), think what it would be like with 9 times as many cases!

He further commented on the prosecution’s justification for higher sentences if the defendant insisted on a trial and was later convicted. One reason is the effect the trial has on the victims and other civilian witnesses. Similarly, the defendant’s attorney is motivated to negotiate a guilty plea as “…which will typically be a modification of the charges, a recommendation for a sentence that the defendant will perceive as better than what he or she would receive after trial, or both”. He said that in sex cases, there are additional factors for both parties to motivate a plea bargain.

“First, from a prosecutor’s perspective, these cases are associated with greater uncertainty…” From the defense side, “the sentences upon conviction, after trial, are very, very high. If you’re a 20-year-old man and you face potentially 20 years in prison if you lose this trial, there are a lot of people who think that That’s the end of his life: being 40 years old.”

Referring to the difficulties of the victim having to discuss embarrassing and private matters during sex crimes trials, he said: “But on the other hand, there is probably nothing more difficult (for the defendant) to admit in a public court than a sexual offense”, (in the case of a plea agreement).

Another important factor in sexual assault cases is the possibility that the defendant may have to register every year for the rest of his life as a sex offender. If the prosecutor offers a plea deal that still requires this provision, many defendants become anxious about taking the guilty plea. Some say ‘no’, preferring to take their chances at trial. This ‘registration aspect’ is unique to sexual offences. If you rob a bank, brutally mug someone, kidnap a child, or even hold the police “at bay” with an assault rifle, you can “take a guilty plea,” and when you’ve served your sentence and are released, you ‘through’ with the system. There is no record every year at the police station and there is no easy way for the public to find out that he has been jailed for committing a felony.

If you move to a different community or state, you can practically become anonymous when it comes to your past crime.

Would you take a plea deal? Would it be an easy decision for you? Atti. Skibbie put it quite succinctly: In a plea agreement, she “is talking about 5 years in prison vs. 10 years in prison, or 7 years in prison vs. 20 years in prison.”

“It’s very, very difficult to make the decision to go to prison, even for a relatively very short period of time.”

And if you are innocent? Let’s say you’re offered a two-year plea bargain, with a possible 20 if you lose at trial. Do you forget that you are innocent and accept the plea because you have heard that justice is not always fair and that you can be wrongfully convicted?

I leave you with two more cases, real cases in New Hampshire. These are direct quotes from the damned.

(one) “I’ve been an inmate…since 1995. The day my trial began, I was offered a 4-year plea deal…the deal was only on the table until the victim took the stand. Because I was innocent, I went to trial…” “I was convicted of 7 of the 12 counts. The judge sentenced me 18-1/2 to 37 years, with a further 14 to 28 years deferred. I could possibly serve a maximum of 65 years.” “If I were guilty, I would easily have pleaded guilty, completed the sex offender (treatment) program, and as of today, I would be living in the community again.”

(another) “The prosecutor offered me 5 years in prison… (as a plea).” “I refused…knowing my innocence (and)…I wanted to clear my name (at trial).” “On January 30, they found me guilty.” “The judge sentenced me to 33-1/2 to 67 years.”

It is difficult to comment on these specific cases unless one has read more about those cases. But they are all examples of our plea bargain system. That the state could offer such a small sentence under a guilty plea, and then hand down such a long sentence if the case went to trial,

Is there any crime less heinous because the perpetrator agrees to a plea deal? If the prosecutor is certain that the defendant is guilty, is he doing a disservice to society by offering the offender a very light sentence versus a much harsher sentence if convicted by a jury?

The plea bargain system is indeed an interesting aspect of criminal justice and, in my opinion, may never really be fair to everyone or even understood.