Mom,

It is very, very, very unlikely that your son will receive such a long sentence. The only situation in which he would get such a sentence would be if he elected to go to trial, was found guilty on all the counts, and the judge ran all the counts consecutively instead of concurrently.

He is not going to trial and a plea will be much, much more reasonable. He was informed of the possible sentence in an attempt to scare the hell out of him----and it worked---- and make him eager to plea to a much lesser sentence. This scare tactic is one commonly used by prosecutors.

I call this a sort of "judicial blackmail" in which the DA tells the defendant "Either you accept this plea for five years or we will go to trial, I will file all the charges I can, and you will likely receive 82 years. Which do you want to do?" Five years or so sounds like a bargain when the 82 years is mentioned.

But, he does not want to go to trial. He will probably wind up pleading to something more reasonable.

Try to relax.

rewdiazepma

My son took a plea and it said the max would be 10 years. He got 30 months. Don't give up hope.

I agree with Rew, 95+ percent of cases are resolved via a plea deal. Just know that he will be offered a deal of some sort which will be much, MUCH better than 70 years. The prosecutor knows they have your son over a barrel. They know they can dictate whatever sentence they want to him. Now it is up to your son's defense attorney to try and mininize the damage. Normally you would try and show mitigating factors to the judge, but the prosecutor is the judge, jury and executioner as well as the prosecutor in this case.

I don't know what your son is accused of, if I had to guess I would say CP and with the 85% it sounds federal. I will tell you this, the Feds do not mess around. They win almost all of their cases because they only take cases they know they'll win. Regardless if it is federal or not these cases are almost impossible to win at a jury trial. The "ick" factor will do in your son even before his attorney can even try to get a word in. There is no since taking this to trial. People that take this to trial end up with these ridiculous sentences. Rew has stories of people getting 400 year sentences for CP. As of science is going to find some way to keep people alive for 400 and then use the science to keep people alive for that long so they can be continually punished for looking at a naughty picture.

Just know that all is not lost, he will be serving time but I can almost guarantee you it will not be 70 years. Somewhere in the range of 5-15 years is the "going rate". It's still awful, but you will get to see your son again.

If my son went to trial he was looking at 25 years.

I'm trying not to.. But its hard.. It wasn't the prosecutor or anyone like that telling him this.. It was the doctors doing his evaluation.. They wanted to make sure he understood all of it including what he could be facing.. What scares me most is they already seem to be wanting to make an exams of him and throw the book at him... This is all so scary.. And now that the evaluation is done things should move quicker.. In some ways I'm glad cause the uncertainty of things is rough.. But it's scary too cause what those doctors told him is an actual possibility.. 1 of his charges has a max sentence of 7 yrs.. Each of the 5 others has a 15 yr max sentence.. I do know pleas happen and things can change.. But I'm also weary of keeping my hopes to high for that cause then if this ends bad I'll b even more crushed... I just want to hold my kid

My husband went to trial and he was facing 20+ years, but the jury was hung, so the prosecutor offered him 3-23 months. Previously, the offer on the table had been 2-5 years state....so yeah, there's hope

When my son was sentenced the prosecutor said my son needed to be used as an example, that they couldn't show they weren't tough on this crime. He got 30 months.

My fiance would have been sentenced to 20 years, but he got 1 1/2 years with his plea.

Independent.. Its actually not CP... He's facing 6 felony charges for a one time consentual sex act.. Our state is still 1 of 7 that charges u as an adult when ur 17.. And the girl was his "gf" but not of age to consent (which is 15)...

I do hold put hope it won't be that harsh.. His attorney thinks he will get time served and probation.. He's been in county since mid February...

I'm a single mom to him and his sister.. We are very close family.. This is so hard and scary.. This year has been so bad and rough between this and some other things that have happened..

We went to trial, lost and now he is doing 76 years. There is always hope for appeals. there was NO dna in our case. If a plea is a possible way then I would go for it. Now looking back at what he has now. Plea was 28 years. It is sad, but keep up hope and continue to be strong for your son. Be true to yourself.

Ty