If any families of 9/11 victims think putting these men to death actually achieves justice, I’ve got a bridge to sell them.
Sorry, what’s the bridge reference?
Scammed them into a false confession
Next step in the play is to get a jury trial filled with folks willing to lie about not hearing about this plea bargain, so they can quietly convict and claim no bias.
Plea bargains are coercive and only benefit the guilty while screwing over the innocent. Though trial judges aren’t in theory supposed to be aware of a defendant rejecting a plea bargain, prosecutors often tell judges that the defendant rejected a plea bargain and it makes the defendant look ungrateful/unremorseful during trial.
So the next time you hear of a dubious case where folks are saying "but they PLED GUILTY" as irrefutable evidence of guilt, keep in mind this person may very well have accepted a plea bargain to avoid a heavy handed judge feeling scorned by a rejection of a plea bargain by a lowly defendant who in the judge’s mind is almost certainly guilty.
And the next time you see someone found guilty by a judge, bear in mind there a good chance that person rejected a plea bargain and part of the judge’s finding of guilt has more to do with feeling outraged that a plea bargain was rejected than anything rooted in truth.
Juries determine guilt. Judges conduct trials.
Plea bargains are a way for the state to save itself the expense of a trial but the way it works out is to compel people to accept a lighter punishment via plea deal than they might get at trial even if they are innocent because there is little that pisses of the incarceration industrial complex more than being innocent.
Judges (generally) can’t just summarily pronounce you guilty, but they can let the prosecution get away with anything it wants, prohibit you from presenting evidence on your own behalf, and editorialize on the facts of the case to the jury.
The whole system is engineered to lock up as many people as possible and it makes a mind boggling amount of money doing it while also using various methods to discourage targeted civilians from participating in society.
Hard to take you seriously when you seemingly aren’t aware of judge-alone trials. I don’t think you have a clue what you’re taking about. Also, judges in jury trials still play a huge influence on the jury’s decisionmaking. It’s common for POC in redneck areas to opt for judge alone trials instead of dealing with a jury of folks who are far from their peers.
Pleas bargains in theory work as you described. In reality, they’re pushed by prosecutors with the "we know you can’t afford a trial and/or are too scared to face a harsh sentence" addendum.
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