But typical of our revolving door courts,
ssmynkint. Some judges are more concerned about offending a potential voter and some ADAs are more concerned about their 'conviction rate' that they'll plea down
Sherman's March Through Georgia as Simple Trespass.
Wanna make the courts more effective?
Ban all plea bargains* and do away with the Tennessee Sentencing Guidelines.
Me? I don't give a flying rat's ass fuck if it is dude's first murder, it's a murder. Dude should be, if righteously convicted, removed from society for a significant amount of time. Period. Dude kills someone driving drunk/texting/driving with head up ass? Dude should be, if righteously convicted, removed from society for a significant amount of time. Dude rapes/abuses/neglects to care for a child or woman? Dude should be, if righteously convicted, removed from society forever. Dude steals shit that I worked my ass off for? Dude should be, if righteously convicted, removed from society for a significant amount of time.
If convicted, the defendant does the exact time range as currently required by law and not the time that some unfathomable Chinese Arithmetic formula has calculated.
A 'plea bargain' is really a bargain for the convicted criminals and the defense bar. It is not a bargain, at all, for victims and society as a whole.
Each class of felony currently has a sentencing range that will allow Judges the discretion to include mitigating/enhancing factors in handing down a sentence.
Initially, the system will slow down as more trials will have to be conducted and more prison space will be required (Temporarily). But, after it all levels out, things will return to a manageable status quo. Criminals will learn that there is a realistic personal cost to violating the law; thereby, reducing crime. The career criminals will be removed from society for significant lengths of time; thereby, reducing crime.
Reducing, or eliminating, prison time for any defendants, but the most violent drug dealers, convicted of 'possession of controlled substance' will free up plenty of prison space.
It really is pretty simply...
- Remove the cancer (career criminals) from society, if righteously convicted.
Rehab? Do we try and change a cancer that is attacking a body? Do we send cancer to 'Anger Management' classes? Do we try to make cancer nicer, more educated, more religious and more compassionate? Do we coddle, and feel sorry for, a cancer? Do we think that cancer is just misunderstood and really isn't a bad thing? Do we care, at this point, how the cancer has entered into the body of society? Do we try to integrate an already defeated cancer back into the now healthy body of society?
Hell no! We identify the cancer. We isolate the cancer. Then we cut the cancer out, hammer the cancer with radiation and killer chemicals, in a hopeful attempt to remove it, permanently, from the host.
No touchy-feely bullshit there. Usually effective, if we discover the cancer early and then hit it hard, hit it quickly and hit it with an overwhelming violence of force.
Waiting for someone else to do something, ignoring it or simply hoping for it to go away (As we now do with our criminals) is not an effective means to deal with a killer, a predator or even a petty criminal.
Now, does this cancer on our society have it's proponents? Yes, it does.
Duke,
brenda and their misguided, ill-informed and damagingly biased ivory tower sycophants are all about getting to know the cancer better, mitigating (or trying to explain away) the cancer, understanding the cancer and becoming one with the cancer.
These idiots would rather blame the doctor for the cancer instead of focusing on the cancer that permeates our society. (It's easier, they don't have to get involved and the doctor is not some anonymous actor).
The career criminal/terrorist is our current cancer.....
LE, the Law, the Courts and the DOC, should be the doctor (and the obvious cure) and society is the patient.
Does there need to be a check and balance (On LE, the Law, the Courts and the DOC) here?
Of course there should be, or we could devolve to patients (our society) dieing from the 'cure'.
It's a fine line that I, and my Brothers and Sisters, walk everyday.
*
ALASKA'S PLEA BARGAINING BAN RE-EVALUATED