[Vision2020] Public Defenders Office and prosecution bullying tactics.

[bubba jones]

Joan,

Just because I didn't comment on your entire article doesn't mean I missed 
your point.  I just wanted to blurb your last paragraph.  And, if you've 
read my other statements you know that I am all for vigorous defense if 
warranted.

My original point was that we shouldn't judge the PD on how many cases he 
settles versus how many he brings to court.  There are times (and it may be 
over 50%) when it's better for the defendant to enter into a plea bargain 
than to go to court to fight.  Nothing more or less.

The PD is there to defend.  The PDs job is to do the best by his/her client 
- whether that be court or plea. Also, If I needed a PD I would want him 
gnarly and mean, wearing no "kick me" sign.

On that note I am starting a petition to require all lawyers to wear "kick 
me" signs and not just Public Defense attorneys.

Joan said:
"We often fight cases in which we know
we are guilty, and we fight them with great vigor.  We don't want to
go to jail.  We don't want to pay the fine.  Or, we know we're going
to jail, but we want to go for five years rather than twenty, and
we'd prefer to pay fifty bucks instead of five hundred"

True.  However, given the choice between a plea that guarantees three years 
time versus trial where the prosecutor guarantees he will ask for ten years 
if the defendant is found guilty, it often takes the "vigor" out of the 
"guilty" (knows he did it) defendant.

Given that prosecutors use such bullying tactics why aren't they brought to 
task?
B. Jones


>From: "Joan Opyr" <auntiestablishment@hotmail.com>
>To: vision2020@moscow.com
>Subject: Re:[Vision2020] Public Defenders Office
>Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2004 14:38:04 -0800
>
>Bubba says:
>
>>There is a difference between going to court to get a reduced fine on a 
>>speeding ticket, knowing that the worst that can happen is that the fine 
>>isn't reduced, and, going to court knowing that the worst that can happen 
>>is many more years in jail.
>
>Of course there is, but I fear you've missed my point, which had to do with 
>guilt or innocence.  We often fight cases in which we know we are guilty, 
>and we fight them with great vigor.  We don't want to go to jail.  We don't 
>want to pay the fine.  Or, we know we're going to jail, but we want to go 
>for five years rather than twenty, and we'd prefer to pay fifty bucks 
>instead of five hundred.  In order for an adversarial legal system to 
>function, you have to have effective adversaries.  It doesn't really work 
>if you have a gung-ho prosecutor on the one hand, and a defense attorney 
>wearing a "Kick Me" sign on the other.
>
>Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment
>
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