Comments on: All that’s left to do is mitigate

By: Gideon

Gideon — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 12:23:26 +0000

What’s a cop out?

By: Lee Stonum

Lee Stonum — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 05:19:02 +0000

That’s a cop out, Gideon. I call bullshit.

By: 234 Years | Fresno Criminal Defense

234 Years | Fresno Criminal Defense — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 21:12:11 +0000

[...] something that puts the nebulous rest of us — “society” — at risk. Thus Gideon points out: The concept is dying a quick and painful death. It took only 200 odd years for the [...]

By: MJI

MJI — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 16:49:44 +0000

Another true and thoughtful post. Factor in high public defender caseloads, the pressure to move business and government enabling harmless error analysis; it’s clear the point of due process get’s lost. During pre-trials, legal arguments rub too many Judge’s and prosecutors raw. They don’t want to be lawyers. So, the bargaining chip becomes the extreme.

Part of the unfairness is how we divvy out discretion and skip due process in this state.

The unfettered Judicial discretion in to transfer cases to “Part A”, a.k.a. “high court”. Imagine if we had indictments and “bind-over” hearings.

Vesting discretion in the prosecutor in relation to Juvenile transfers and Youthful Offender Status.

The disingenuous review of sentences by the Sentence Review Division and our sentence modification statutes.

Perhaps we need to devise a cohesive strategy on these issues. As a group we’ll have to put self-interest and shameless self-promotion aside.

By: Gerard

Gerard — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 00:45:29 +0000

And Happy “Independence” Day to you, too.