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Judge says no to sweetheart plea bargain |
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Wednesday, 05 July 2006 19:00 |
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Going after weak judges is popular these days, and we're all for it. But PROTECT is constantly reminding lawmakers that for every sweetheart sentence handed down by a judge, there are likely to be a hundred or more sweetheart plea bargains.
In fact, only about four percent of all criminal cases in the U.S. end
up before a jury. That means judges spend a huge part of their day
presiding over... plea bargains. With overcrowded court dockets and the
inevitable pressures to go along and get along, cases are usually
dispatched quickly and easily, especially when the victims are just
children. But once in a while, a judge balks at business as usual. Take
the case of Massachussets Judge Judd J. Carhart. The Springfield Republican
reports that Assistant District Attorney Jayme Parent and defense
lawyer Alan Rubin teamed up to bring Judge Carhart a plea agreement in
the case of a 47-year old man who distributed child pornography. The
defendant was first discovered in February of 2004, when he was lurking
in an online chat room and sent a child pornography image to an
undercover police officer in Texas. Massachussets police then went to
his home and found more illegal images. Despite the work of police in
two states and cold, hard evidence, prosecutors agreed to a plea
bargain of 10 years probation.
After viewing child pornography of a "small child," Judge Carhart asked
Parent, "why not incarcerate him...? I simply can't accept a plea given
what I've seen. This is not meant to criticize you or your office." The
defendant has changed his plea to innocent and will now go to trial.
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