Plea bargains are not automatic. A prosecutor or a DA offers a deal in the form of a plea bargain in exchange for a guilty plea by the defendant. If the DA does not offer one, then there is no plea bargain.

It sounds as if your son will have to do a "blind plea," in which he pleads guilty before the judge and the judge imposes the sentence. In plea bargains the defendant knows what the conditions and length of his sentence will be, as it is spelled out right there in the plea bargain agreement.

A blind plea is certainly a roll of the dice. Since there is no agreement, the defendant does not know what sentence he will receive until the judge imposes the sentence.

Some defense attorneys---if they know the history of the judge and know that he is very lenient----will instruct the defendant to take a blind plea if the plea the state offers is not acceptable. Sometimes this works, but sometimes it backfires.

I have no idea why the AG is not offering a plea. They usually want to plea as that gives them a sure conviction. Either her evidence is so air tight that she feels she does not need to offer any plea or someone has really pissed her off.

Hope this helps,

rewdiazepam

I live in NY. My sons plea agreement was for anywhere from 5 to 20 years, fines totaling up to 250,000, and supervised release from 5 years to life. He got sentenced to 10 years, and 10 years supervised release, no fines (he has had no income for the last 2 years) and the $100 special assessment (which he cannot pay because he has no money). So sometimes a plea agreement is no guarantee either.

I will say a prayer for you and your son.

kitty

Worried.. did you have a court appointed attorney? I have an 'adopted' inmate who had one. And he did nothing. They wouldn't let him plead out but insisted on a trial because they knew they could find him guilty with no decent representation.

I know attorneys are expensive, but from my experience, if you're paying one then a plea is more likely.

My son's plea said up to 10 years and the judge gave him 30 months.

Lifetime registration for PA seems steep. One of the reasons I moved to PA was so my son wouldn't have to register for life, only 15 years, because FL was lifetime.

Pleas are a gamble... the defense and prosecution can agree on anything... the Judge can do whatever they want no matter what the plea says. Many people do not know that going into their criminal stuff... and those that criticize plea deals for all those 'monsters' out there regardless of crime, the judge had the ultimate power they could have put those people away forever, if they wanted to. Which is why I never knock a plea deal when I hear it on the news... cause I know that a plea is not guilty or innocent, it is about getting out of the system alive and as soon as possible.

I am not just talking about sex offenders.. I am talking about terrorists, murderers, frauds, ponzi schemers... etc... ALL Of them... if they plea the judge can do whatever they like within the confines of the sentencing guidelines of their jurisdiction...

Because of that, they do have ultimate power, and when people get outraged because of a plea deal they should be asking why the judge didn't just go for broke when sentencing? They could.

I do have a private attorney, he said the AG will not offer a plea, but she will not make a presentation or request any jail time and let it up to the judge to do the sentence. This is what my son told me last night. I have a call into the attorney to try and find out what is going on, he also told me he would have a life time registration but no neighbor notification. I'm so confused because I thought that happened after he was convicted.

It does happen after conviction. That is part of the discussion, lifetime registration outside of prison, but no neighbor notification. Lifetime registration is terrible but the no notification means that your son will have a chance to live a somewhat "normal" life. If he had both, it would be significantly harder.