unfortunately, honestwitness, yes as our only option was a court appointed attorney who advised him it was his only choice to avoid prison. The total evidence against my son was the page from the diary where the girl had written they had sex. No witnesses, nothing else.

The prosecutor and "our" attorney couldn't wait to get all paperwork signed so that my son could 'go home and resume his normal life" as they put it. That scene plays over and over in my nightmares lately.

You can "google" that website. There are a lot of valid points, if the accused is in fact guilty. Without going into it again, yes i was guilty, was I KNOWINGLY guilty? No. (my PD is now a judge) This site also says (briefly) that a plea can possibly save an SO's life in prison. lets face it, if you're charged with a sex crime, the prosecutor is still make you plea to a (maybe lesser) sex crime and you WILL be forced to register. When I took the plea, the judge asked me "Are you pleading guilty to attempt exploitation"? "Yes sir" (judge)"Are you pleading guilty to this charge because you are in fact guilty"? "Yes sir". In Utah, if you take a plea, you have to "admit" your guilt before the judge will accept the plea.

I found the website by googling it. I read the part about plea bargains. Very helpful. Thanks for sharing, VikiL.

However, I didn't find the place where it said a plea bargain can save anyone's life in prison. I'll go look again.

Just go to

criminal.findlaw.com

then search for plea bargains

Ok. I looked again and still can't find anything that says a plea bargain can save a SO's life in prison. I'll have to put that thought on the back burner until someone can give me a valid reference.

Criminal.findlaw.com

Oops. Criminal.findlaw.com. Sec; Defendants incentives for accepting plea bargains. Paragraph 5; Having a less stigmatizing offence on ones record. Prosecutors may reduce charges that are perceived as socially offensive to less offensive charges in exchange for a guilty plea. For example; A prosecutor may reduce a molestation or rape charge to an assault. This can have a major impact on the defendants relationship with friends and family. Perhaps more critical, sometimes defendants convicted of stigmatizing offenses may be at a greater risk of being harmed (or killed) in prison than if they are convicted of an offense that doesn't carry the same stigma.

Coastie, I did go to criminal.findlaw.com and did search for plea bargains. Maybe I'm brain dead, but I couldn't find the statement you shared.

Below the search option is a menu. Click STAGES OF A CASE . A sub menu will come up. Click PLEA BARGAINS. That should take you to WHY PLEA BARGAINS ARE MADE. Then look under Defendants incentives for accepting plea bargains. I hope this helps, I can be a bit brain dead too. sometimes too often.

Yay! I found it, thanks to your more explicit instructions. Plenty of good food for thought, Coastie. Thanks for being patient with me.

There is also a documentary on Plea Bargains From PBS, I found it on Netflix or hulu and it redirected me to their site... I might even have it on my website... I just can't remember and don't have time to look right now.

If you are innocent and can afford to fight then goto trial. In WI you can't plead no contest to a sex offense, you either plead guilty and basically lie to the court and tell them that you did it and then have to fabricate your story for treatment cause if nothing happened then you stick to what the complaint said and ONLY that. If you are innocent appealing is so much easier, there are more things you can appeal on and more ammo that you can use, if you plea and then try to appeal, like we did, the grounds are much harder to find and you are only appealing on whether or not the appellate court believes what you say about the lower court 'not following the proper procedure' cause an appeal is not about evidence it is not about truth it is about the lower courts mistakes and where the burden of proof was on the prosecution in the trial the burden is now on YOU in the appeal, so you have to PROVE beyond a shadow of a doubt about their good'ole boy judge and lawyer friends of the lower court screwed up.

When I hired the lawyers I did for the appeal and subsequent re-trial proceedings (we didn't goto trial either making the same decision as someone else on here about taking the plea and just trying to get our life back in some way instead of risking 25 years in prison to LIFE because WI is a two strike state and they had added a second victim that denied anything happened so only the first victim was a witness to both crimes and the second victim said repeatedly that the other victim was lying about all of it because she wanted the attention) Those lawyers told me that my odds were better taking the money I would give them and doubling it in Vegas, they were probably right, but I gambled and we won even if it was only partially... in less than 2 years I will have him home, albeit on probation but HOME.

The whole thing is a choice, I know if I were accused of the same thing, I would fight, but my husband when it first started wasn't as savvy as I am, not as legally quick and made some mistakes early on when they arrested him, don't what children do, telling them what they want to hear cause he just wanted out of there. That of course was wrong and he will never make that mistake again, although the damage is now done.

There is also a documentary on Plea Bargains From PBS, I found it on Netflix or hulu and it redirected me to their site... I might even have it on my website... I just can't remember and don't have time to look right now.

If you are innocent and can afford to fight then goto trial. In WI you can't plead no contest to a sex offense, you either plead guilty and basically lie to the court and tell them that you did it and then have to fabricate your story for treatment cause if nothing happened then you stick to what the complaint said and ONLY that. If you are innocent appealing is so much easier, there are more things you can appeal on and more ammo that you can use, if you plea and then try to appeal, like we did, the grounds are much harder to find and you are only appealing on whether or not the appellate court believes what you say about the lower court 'not following the proper procedure' cause an appeal is not about evidence it is not about truth it is about the lower courts mistakes and where the burden of proof was on the prosecution in the trial the burden is now on YOU in the appeal, so you have to PROVE beyond a shadow of a doubt about their good'ole boy judge and lawyer friends of the lower court screwed up.

When I hired the lawyers I did for the appeal and subsequent re-trial proceedings (we didn't goto trial either making the same decision as someone else on here about taking the plea and just trying to get our life back in some way instead of risking 25 years in prison to LIFE because WI is a two strike state and they had added a second victim that denied anything happened so only the first victim was a witness to both crimes and the second victim said repeatedly that the other victim was lying about all of it because she wanted the attention) Those lawyers told me that my odds were better taking the money I would give them and doubling it in Vegas, they were probably right, but I gambled and we won even if it was only partially... in less than 2 years I will have him home, albeit on probation but HOME.

The whole thing is a choice, I know if I were accused of the same thing, I would fight, but my husband when it first started wasn't as savvy as I am, not as legally quick and made some mistakes early on when they arrested him, don't what children do, telling them what they want to hear cause he just wanted out of there. That of course was wrong and he will never make that mistake again, although the damage is now done.

Speaking of brain dead, the proverbial elephant in the room has been sitting right on my lap for longer than I care to admit. Again I was commenting on an article regarding sex offenders and another commenter presented this jewel of a quote, "Since when can you actually be arrested because of what someone said??? Do they have proof that he did it?" This simple (yet legally complex) statement suddenly made me realize why everyone out there sees everyone in our position as a MONSTER. It was as if a giant lazer beam shot from the sky and burned the elephant right off of my lap. There was suddenly a vision of the judicial system as those outside of our circle see it. The music played, the clouds parted and the white robed judges descended from heaven, law books in hand. We are seen groveling in our sick and filthy guilt at their feet. Simply put, as they see it none of us would be convicted if we were not proven guilty "beyond a shadow of a doubt." On our side under this way of thinking, I see the miracle of more than 95% of us being able to throw off these heavy shackles and walk back into the world as "INNOCENT"!!!!!

Honest,
Not only will prosecutors push pleas, but so will hired attorney's! Attorney's can say they got the charges reduced, thus a win on their sides as well. The prosecutor can say they won too! Both sides win, defendant looses!
I would never have taken a plea for my son........he lost his trial, but we can still appeal! At least it's on record that he plead not guilty.