Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Judgement Call

Let's say you're arrested for murder. Not that any of you would be of course...but it does happen!

Quite rightly, you intend to plead "not guilty" and prove your innocence. On the day of the trial the prosecution, unsure of their case, offers to accept a plea of guilty to manslaughter instead, and a sentence of 7 years.

What do you do? Do you spit in their eye and go to trial in the knowledge that you are innocent? Or do you accept their offer of 7 years rather than risk being found guilty of murder and a life sentence?

A surprising number of innocent people refuse to accept a plea. They are innocent, why should they go to prison at all? Quite a few of them then find they judged badly and are now serving life.

An even more surprising number take the deal. Despite being completely innocent, they don't want to risk being saddled with a life sentence and so serve 7 years for a crime they did not commit.

If you were in that situation, what would you do? Risk standing on your innocence? Or go to prison in a calculated move to limit the damage?

4 comments:

  1. That is a real conundrum, I would cross that bridge when I came to it of course.

    However imagining that I am in that situation depending on the circumstances, I have been told that I frighten people with my presence and (at times) quick fire tongue so I would hope that it would extend to the police and the judge, but I guess most people think that.

    If people like judges and police are determined to pin something on me that I am innocent of, knowing me I would not compromise my innocence and just hope that if I got a life sentence, I could go somewhere where there was a kiln, and some books.

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  2. Not something i could answer on a hypothetical basis, but if i was to commit murder, i would have the good sense to make it look like an accident, the perfect murder is were it is make to look like an accident, and no-one is charged (Diana perhaps?). Having said that, there is nothing i would commit murder for, maybe if a pedophile hurt my kids, but no cheating partner or cash is worth 15years plus of my life in prison.

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  3. Well, Anonymous 9:09 AM,

    Let's contemplate an anonymous phone call to the national 'shop-a-paedophile' hotline.

    They say YOU are a paedophile, and the local gestapo, under the ZanuLabour guidelines of guilty until proven innocent, or no smoke without fire &c, automatically sling you in the nearest HMP.

    Meanwhile the state can harm your kids by taking them into 'care'; and if they are young enough, let them play with anatomically accurate dolls, until the well trained Marxist-Feminist lady policeman, finds a few minutes of incriminating evidence on her multiple hour stash of recordings.

    Who will you kill then anonymous?

    As for Ben's conundrum, he has left out the third option, of the guilty pleading innocent, and then being given the 'manslaughter' option; resulting in the innocent doing life, and the guilty doing short term.

    The winners are the quota chasers; as more prisoners equals more 'justice' against crime. Also the 'victim support' quangos, rely on shattered justice, so they can justify their pseudo-charitable status by picking up the pieces.

    Oh, and Anonymous, if you want to know where all the paedophiles come from, they come from the imaginations of the very expensive advertising agencies, paid for by the NSPCC, via mugs like you. And just to make sure they can sell some semblance of credibility, they add the odd mug-shot of a 'real' paedophile, fresh from remand, and judged guilty from the incriminating video footage, of daddies little girl playing with the nice lady policeman's dollies.

    Only that pore sod will not have the option of being 'anonymous' any more.

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  4. american guy on child molestation charges had this problem. Cant find it but he had a long blog about it. He took the deal.

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