Every person charged with a crime deserves a vigorous defense, and part of that process is an attempt to plead down the case. Defense lawyers have nothing to be ashamed of in the slightest.
Some judges dissent because their egos are bruised. They are taken out of the equation after a child predator is convicted.
Ego doesn't have anything to do with it, Judges understand that justice isn't as simple as a rulebook.
Sad to say but I didn't need Bill O. to tell me this. If there is any kind of perversion the democrats are for it. Coddle the criminal, blame the victim.
How can anyone be a democrat? (rhetorical question)
child molesters are unable to reform and the most merciful punishment for them is death.However we are a "civilized "society and must try the alternative.Or so say "enlightened"liberals.Uh-huh.And I'm a mongoose,too.
It all depends on the definition of "child".
After puberty, if no force or threat was involved, a mandatory minimum of 25 years is WAY too much.
I wouldn't object to a high minimum sentence if coercion was involved or if the victim was a REAL child (pre-adolescent) and not just a "legal child" (meaning under 18). But there are lots of teenagers who, while legally minors, are sufficiently mature that it makes sense to say they "consented", and in that case, even if you rightly impose a jail sentence, 25 years is crazy. (And of course you can't jail teenagers of similar ages for having sex with each other.)
"If you rape or sexually brutalize a child, that child will never fully recover. For the rest of that person's life, the crime will be played out in a variety of ways."
Valid, true statement.
There was another Florida case where an 11-year old girl was killed by a guy with eleven priors for unprovoked assaults against females. In the first case, he hit a woman over the head and dragged her into the woods, but she escaped and, because she was not "harmed" he pled down to a trivial charge.
Right then and there, society lost its best chance to save that poor little girl's life.
Hitting a woman over the head and dragging her into the woods is not a crime like robbing a gas station or writing bad checks, but it is processed in the same way by the same people.
In the case of a guy who drags strangers off to rape them, what's wrong with the offender never gets fixed.
If it were up to me, I'd execute people like this as soon as they were identified, but lifelong incarceration is fine with me - I'd just rather not pay for it.
O'Reilly is against the death penalty. I can live with that, provided that the alternative makes the perps WISH they were dead! Life at hard labor, 16 hours a day, seven days a week with no amenities whatsoever, on minimal rations sounds good, but it is too damned expensive. See my profile page for the proposed solution. < /rant >