Re:Do You Have the Right to Plead Not Guilty When Your Lawye...
by jandrese on Wednesday January 17, 2018 @12:54PM
(#16170084)
This is an unenviable position, to be innocent but everybody else assumes you're guilty and you don't have the resources to mount a proper defense so the "best" advice you can get is to lie and say that you are guilty so maybe the state won't kill you.
This is how innocent people end up on death row.
Re:Do You Have the Right to Plead Not Guilty When Your Lawye...
by dragonwriter on Wednesday January 17, 2018 @01:51PM
(#16170596)
> This is an unenviable position, to be innocent but everybody else assumes you're guilty
A lawyer advising you to plea guilty is not necessarily assuming you are guilty any more than a lawyer saying that you have a solid basis for a not guilty plea necessarily assumes you are factually not guilty.
The lawyer is advising you on their opinion of where you will get the best (which may merely be “least terrible”) result from the legal system.
Now, they may or may not be doing a decent job of that, but that's a different issue.
Re:Do You Have the Right to Plead Not Guilty When Your Lawye...
by emodendroket on Wednesday January 17, 2018 @01:25PM
(#16170357)
I agree that it's a serious issue, but it seems kind of ancillary to this one.
> But he was continually at odds with his public defenders, eventually firing them for refusing to file subpoenas he prepared for a dozen witnesses, who he said could support his alibi defense and other claims. He briefly acted as his own lawyer until his parents hired Larry English to defend him, and even then, the defendant continued to file motions in his own defense.
> English repeatedly advised McCoy to plead guilty in exchange for life in prison instead of the death penalty or to plead not guilty by reason of insanity, but McCoy repeatedly refused, insisting that he was innocent.