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Should criminals be able to secure plea bargains by compensating their victims with cash? Yes No

When he pleaded guilty to misconduct in office and circumventing state election laws in October, Chuck Chvala acknowledged he was giving up his right to a trial, although he told the judge he really wanted one. Just how badly the former Democratic Senate majority leader wanted to fight the charges filed against him three years ago was starkly evident in pre-sentencing papers filed Thursday in Dane County Circuit Court. Alternately combative and grudgingly contrite, Chvala admitted little more than giving legislative staffers the "impression" it was OK to work on campaigns on state time and taking the "risk" that secretly...

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420AP_WA_Green_River.html Tuesday, November 22, 2005 · Last updated 1:43 p.m. PT Skull of Green River serial killer victim found By ELIZABETH M. GILLESPIE ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER SEATTLE -- A weekend hiker found the skull of one of the 48 women Green River serial killer Gary Ridgway admitted murdering in his 2003 plea bargain with King County prosecutors. The skull of Tracy Winston, who was 19 when she disappeared from Northgate Mall on Sept. 12, 1983, was found Sunday by a man hiking in a wooded area near Highway 18 near Issaquah, southeast of Seattle. The sheriff's office used...

President Bill Clinton told NBC's Brian Williams tonight charges brought against him by the House of Representatives were false, contradicting a plea bargain deal he made with Independent Counsel Robert Ray that he admit he gave false testimony under oath to a federal grand jury. In a blistering attack on Ray's predecessor, Kenneth Starr, Clinton accused the independent counsel of persecuting innocent people, indicting them because they wouldn't lie and assaulting the Constitution. "I was acquitted," he told Williams. "And ... the charges that the House sent to the Senate were false. So I did a bad thing. I made...

Clinton: ‘I paid a big price’The former president on his legacy, his health and his wife's future By Brian Williams Anchor & “Nightly News” Managing Editor NBC News Updated: 6:52 p.m. ET June 1, 2005 CHAPPAQUA, N.Y. - Former president Bill Clinton is just back from a grueling 14-day, 12-nation, 16-stop tour. **SNIP** I asked the president a blunt question about his legacy and any regrets he may have that impeachment will always play a prominent role in how his presidency is remembered. Clinton: It probably would, because — but to be fair, you said you're being blunt with me....

Ex-president Bill Clinton is backing away from the deal he made with Independent Counsel Robert Ray four years ago, which required him to admit that he gave false testimony under oath to a federal grand jury. In an explosive interview with NBC's Brian William broadcast Wednesday night, Clinton insisted that articles of impeachment passed by the House in 1998 - which included the accusation that he lied under oath - were false. "The charges that the House sent to the Senate were false," Clinton claimed for the first time since signing off on his 2001 plea bargain with Ray. "So...

Article Last Updated: 4/15/2005 08:49 AM Guilty plea by Hacking likely today The plan all along? All signs indicate neither side ever intended to go to trial By Matthew D. LaPlante The Salt Lake Tribune Salt Lake Tribune Expect no gasps of surprise if Mark Hacking pleads guilty today. It appears that he has never intended to do anything otherwise.    Witnesses pivotal to the prosecution's case were never contacted by defense investigators - a fundamental first step in establishing a trial defense in any case, let alone one in which the defendant faces life imprisonment.    And, apparently content that...

GALVESTON - A Galveston judge rejected a plea bargain that would have closed out two bail-jumping charges and one evidence-tampering charge against New York millionaire Robert Durst.

Jacob Sullum'sSyndicated Column Pill Sham (4/23) Hair Net (4/16) Abetting Betting (4/9) Earlier Columns April 23, 2004 Pill Sham A man seeking pain relief gets 25 years for drug trafficking Jacob Sullum Here's a bit of legal information that may interest Rush Limbaugh: Under Florida law, illegally obtaining more than 28 grams of painkillers containing the narcotic oxycodone—a threshold exceeded by a single 60-pill Percocet prescription—automatically makes you the worst sort of drug trafficker, even if you never sold a single pill. Even if, like Richard Paey, you were using the drugs to relieve severe chronic pain. Although prosecutors...

<p>SEATTLE — In a deal with prosecutors, Gary Ridgway (search) is apparently close to securing what authorities claim he denied his many victims: life.</p> <p>Ridgway was scheduled Wednesday to plead guilty to 48 counts of aggravated first-degree murder, making him the nation's deadliest serial killer (search), sources told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.</p>

Captured al-Qa'eda man was FBI spy By David Rennie in Washington (Filed: 23/06/2003) The American al-Qa'eda operative unmasked last week as having planned to bring down the Brooklyn Bridge was first detained in March, and has been used by the FBI for months as a double agent, it was reported yesterday. Iyman Faris US authorities waited until last week to announce a plea bargain struck with Iyman Faris, a Pakistani-born lorry driver ordered to scout out terror targets, including the New York landmark. They did not say that Faris, who was also ordered to study ultralight aircraft, and the possibility...

<p>An al Qaeda sleeper agent "wrapped in his cloak of American citizenship" has secretly pleaded guilty to aiding Osama bin Laden by scouting out bridges and railroads for destruction in New York and Washington, Attorney General John Ashcroft said yesterday.</p>

Morales' brother makes deal in extortion case He'll admit Sanchez threats during campaign, probably serve 2 years 01/22/2003 By PETE SLOVER / The Dallas Morning News AUSTIN - The brother of former state Attorney General Dan Morales has agreed to plead guilty to a federal extortion charge that will probably result in a two-year prison sentence and could carry up to a $250,000 fine, his lawyer said Tuesday. Under the deal, music producer Michael Morales, 40, of San Antonio will admit he threatened to make allegations public about Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tony Sanchez if the campaign of the Laredo...

Ex-bailiff's sentence satisfies victim's kin He won't be eligible for parole until he's 73 in murder case deal 12/03/2002 By RACHEL HORTON / The Dallas Morning News FLOWER MOUND - The family and friends of a 30-year-old Flower Mound woman slain by her husband in March said Monday that they were satisfied with a plea bargain in which the husband agreed to serve 40 years in prison in exchange for a guilty plea. The deal came unexpectedly just before the Thanksgiving holiday, when 52-year-old Thomas Lee Collins, a former Denton County bailiff who had refused offers for plea bargains...

<p>ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) --  The plea bargain the government struck with John Walker Lindh will ensure U.S. investigators have unfettered access to the young American who fought with the Taliban as they try to learn more about the inner workings of al-Qaida.</p>