I often feel that way myself, and I’m part of the system. I play the game everyday. I’ve got about 140 felony clients right now and I handle piles and piles of misdemeanor and juvenile cases. I don’t know how many I do in a year, but it’s some ungodly ridiculous number of cases. I’ve got a dozen adult felony pleas set for next week, and if I work out all the cases I have set for jury trial next week I’ll end up doing probably closer to twenty felony pleas in one day. One I know will be for jury trial for sure, but there is a possibly I might have to try two next week. I’m a public defender and all we can do is try to make sure people don’t get screwed in the system, but things don’t always work out like they should. Prosecutors aren’t all bad though. In this particular case I think the worst culprit is the legislature that wrote such an overly inclusive law, making something so minor a felony, lumping it in with far worse crimes. This type of conduct this fellow engaged in should be excluded from the definition of this particular felony crime. It would have been nice if the prosecutor had have gone easier on this guy, perhaps letting him off with a warning or something not as stiff as what he got, but then again this guy could have come out of this in a lot worse shape. The legislature needs to rewrite the law so people don’t get screwed even worse than this guy got screwed.
That is why I said sayonara to the law, and I’m glad I did!
We have our hands full in Delaware. The system is horribly corrupt and to make things worse, we have Joe Biden Jr. as our new Attorney General--who doesn't have the balls to fire prosecutors who demonstrate a lack of discretion, or to go after the monsters in the system who ruin people's lives on purpose and waste taxpayer money--all so to have their power trip. No, they cover it up for them. There are people in the system breaking the law, and they get away with it.
Thank God, there will be a payday, someday, for people like these.
For instance, we're working on getting some of those mandatory sentencing laws revised. Why? The prisons are filling up. Child molesters are being let out or in some cases not even prosecuted, while a teenage kid with a joint in his pocket or drinking a beer on his driveway gets the book thrown at him. It would be cheaper to pay a fine (like a ticket) instead of wasting thousands prosecuting. The poor guy accessing the *free* wireless access got hosed likewise. Go figure.
Our public defenders are really sick of this crap. Child advocates (like myself) are likewise irritated. And we're all sick and tired of Ruth Ann Minner (the Governor) who appoints a lot of these nasty, corrupt cronies who should be locked up themselves, along with her...the old bat!