[templar]

This guy's lawyer was an idiot.

How so? For pleading guilty instead of going to trial? Was it the lawyers advice or did he just decide for himself to plead guilty, and what would have been the likely sentance for a conviction if the 15 years was already legislated as being mandatory anyway?

[jjm2111]

How so? For pleading guilty instead of going to trial? Was it the lawyers advice or did he just decide for himself to plead guilty, and what would have been the likely sentance for a conviction if the 15 years was already legislated as being mandatory anyway?

If I was facing a fifteen year mandatory mininum. I would please not guilty just to waste the court's time.

[Thumper1960]

Considering what the prosecution could bring up in the course of a jury trial, perhaps he was smart to just plead guilty. Piss off a prosecutor and they could make Jesus spend a thousand years for any "crimes" he may have committed....or, they could have Him sentenced to a mental institution for daring to claim He was the Son of God.

Never underestimate the power of the State.