How a first crack cocaine offense led to a life sentence

Re:How a first crack cocaine offense led to a life sentence by burnte on Sunday July 19, 2015 @06:48PM (#9913159)

This is the type of prosecutorial insanity that has helped create the largest prison system in the world. Prosecutors routinely stack up charges so that they have a massive amount of leverage in plea bargaining to get exactly what they want from the start with no compromise.

Accidentally bounce a check? That's a bad check charge, another charge for theft by unlawful taking (is there theft by LAWFUL taking?), another charge for theft by deception (is there theft by honesty?), theft of services if it was for a service or possibly retail theft if it was for goods at a store. All because your check at the local grocery store didn't clear because the deposit you made took an extra day to process. Now you're on the hook for the $200, and $1000+ in legal costs fines, etc. Because the prosecutor doesn't want to waste time in a trial, he offers you to plead down to just two of those charges, which by all rights all you should really have to face is the bad check charge to start with. Now you understand why 1 in 32 people is dealing with prison, jail, or probation in America.

Source: https://books.google.com/books?id=Lf0TCgAAQBAJ&lpg=PA48&ots=...

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Re:How a first crack cocaine offense led to a life sentence by spikels on Sunday July 19, 2015 @08:03PM (#9913356)

It is mostly the politicians who write these stupid laws not the prosecutors and judges who generally follow the intent of the law. The media deserve a lot of the blame for overhyping issues then demanding solutions when there are no good ones. Of course voters deserve blame for falling for the media's and politician's bullshit views on what our agenda and solutions should be.

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