Quick Quips
- Tuesday, June 30, 2009, 6:46
- Battleground Iowa
- 518 views
- 22 comments
By Emily Geiger
Celebrity Deaths
Why does someone like Michael Jackson get so much more attention in his death than someone like Ed Thomas? I know Thomas has gotten world-wide attention, but certainly not the 24/7 coverage that is the Jackson worship-fest. I guess character doesn’t necessarily correlate with TV coverage.
Sotomayor
The Connecticut firefighter white discrimination case being decided in favor of the white firefighters (and overturning the lower court decision of the Supreme Court Nominee) will have no impact on Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation process.
Sure it’s a little embarrassing for a judge when her decisions get overturned by a higher court, but this just proves to the liberals and the Democrats in the Senate that Sotomayor is someone who would have voted the way they wanted on this issue.
This case makes no difference at all.
Justice for Bernie?
I understand the outrage people feel toward Bernie Madoff who took people’s life savings and flushed it down the crapper. Madoff got a 150 year prison sentence yesterday.
I understand a long prison sentence, but is this really justice when compared to other crimes? For example, compare Madoff to the scumbag in Oklahoma who raped a 4-year-old child who only got ONE year in jail.
I guess this tells us how much we value money and how little we value children and their innocence.
About the Author
Battleground Iowa has written 222 stories on this site.
Emily Geiger writes from a conservative perspective on everything from politics to religion to pop culture. Like the original Emily of Revolutionary War era, this Emily is delivering important messages crucial to winning the raging war of the time, but today, this is a culture war rather than a traditional one. And, like the original Emily, sometimes it takes a woman to do (or say) that which lesser men lack the courage and tenacity to do.
22 Comments on “Quick Quips”
Write a Comment
Gravatars are small images that can show your personality. You can get your gravatar for free today!
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Why does someone give emily a place on a website to post her nonsense??? Some things we will never know.
Silence
Silence, it may be nonsense to you, but your comments are nonsense to others. The question I have for you is “Why do you continue to read Emily if you hate her so much and think her ideas are nonsense?”
Which part of this is nonsense? Every word of it is true. Just because you don’t care about issues like child rape or character in our culture doesn’t mean others don’t.
somebody has to point out her nonsense. god knows you won’t.
Silence
another melodramatic BS statement from Lydia.
Silence
And another non-answer from Silence.
Lydia, your questions are not worth responding to, you choose to live in ignorance and don’t care what the answers are, so why should I bother trying to give you answers you don’t want to hear???
Silence
Way to dodge the truth once again!
Keep living in your little fantasy world where you are always right and better than everyone else.
Why can’t you just admit that this is a pretty straight forward and accurate commentary on some of the issues of the day? Your arrogance wins you no followers.
I don’t need followers lydia, especially people like you. but for the record, who cares about michael jackson and who gets more press coverage, emily is right about sotomayor, bernie got what he deserved, but you can’t possibly compare cases without knowing more facts, one is federal, another is state, one gay admitted it, I would guess the other didn’t and there were probably many issues that may have lead to an aquittal. it is just nonsense, and I do care about child rape.
Silence
What a shock, a quick read of the article shows that I was right.
“Prosecutors said they only agreed to the plea bargain because the case rested largely on the testimony of the girl, now 5, who made contradictory statements during pretrial hearings. After initially testifying about the assault, she later said she couldn’t remember the rape. At one point, the girl ran out of the room and down the hallway.”
Those are some big problems to have as a prosecutor. They got the conviction, and he has to register, you take that to a jury, you very well might not get a conviction. See what you find out when you read and think for yourself lydia, you should try it sometime.
Silence
some more for you to read while on your high moral horse lydia
“District Attorney Jim Bob Miller said Tuesday the plea deal was both necessary and accepted with the approval of the girl’s family. A medical examination of the girl found evidence of a sexual assault, but no DNA evidence tying Earls to the crime.
“If the little girl freezes on the stand, we literally have nothing,” Miller said. “We don’t have any doubt that he did this, but the problem was proving it in court.”
Silence
Last time I checked, once you get guy to plead guilty, the judge is not bound by the sentencing recommendation. The problem here is that the judge didn’t do his job.
Shouldn’t you as an esteemed Iowa lawyer know this?
“Under the deal, David Harold Earls, 64, of the southeastern Oklahoma town of McAlester, pleaded no contest last month to first-degree rape and forcible sodomy. Normally, the rape charge carries a sentence of between five years to life in prison, but the deal he struck with prosecutors called for 19 years of his 20-year sentence to be suspended.”
The charges weren’t lessened as part of the deal, and the judge is not bound by the deal. The judge still could have given him life in prison. Instead he got one year. That’s not justice.
Judges aren’t bound, but 99.9% of the time follow the recommendation, if they don’t it undermines the authority of the prosecutors, also, in the deal like this, the judge will know the circumstances surrounding the plea and knew full well the troubles the prosecutors had. Once again you are told an answer, and you don’t want to hear it, this is why I shouldn’t bother with you lydia.
Silence
It’s telling that you don’t think that this child rape case should qualify for the alleged .01 percent of cases in which a judge should deviate from the plea deal. This guy is now out on the street to offend again thanks to people like you and thinking like yours.
Lydia, if judges don’t follow plea deals, then no one would plea. It would undermine the system, then this goes to trial, the kid freezes and the defendant walks with nothing. These things happen. I don’t like it, but at least he has to register as a sex offender and report to a probation officer for what will be the rest of his life. Additionally, if he does anything to violate the probation, the judge can toss him away for the full twenty years. That is better than an aquittal. Get off the high horse and back into reality.
Silence
For someone who claims to have such a handle on the power and authority of the judicial branch when it comes to the gay marriage issue, you sure don’t seem to know much about it in the context of criminal law.
Let me help you.
Judges do the sentencing, not prosecutors. The judiciary has not ceded it’s power to sentence criminals to the executive branch prosecutors. It is the judge’s job to see that a just sentence is issued in EACH case. That didn’t happen here.
If the judges are just supposed to rubber stamp whatever the proseuctor does, what are we paying the judges for?
Good God lydia, you are such an ignorant and irrational human, it is amazing. The prosecutor didn’t think he could get conviction, or at least was seriously concerned about it, the defendant is risking 20 years behind bars, they strike a deal, take to the judge to see if he will sign off on it, he agreed under the circumstances, because he wants this guy kept in the system. The judge did his job, I don’t have a problem with it. Plus what do you think will happen with this guy, if he sneezes in the wrong direction, misses a probation meeting, looks cross eyed at a police officer, any excuse whatsoever, the judge will revoke the probation and he finishes the 20 year sentence in jail. I bet this guy will be back in jail within a year of release for some kind of probation violation. Would you rather he be tried, the girl freezes (keep in mind forcing her to testify could be as traumatic as the event, the parents signed off on this in part to keep her from having to testify) and this guy walks scott free, I guess for your morals this would be preferrable.
Silence
Lydia, you’re talking stupid!
In Iowa, judges CAN be bound by the plea agreement under certain circumstances. The defendant can plead under a certain rule of criminal procedure that requires the judge to either accept the plea AND the deal, or reject both. If the judge rejects the deal then the defendant can proceed with trial.
Lydia is right that judges aren’t bound by the plea deals. But everyone in the system loves a good plea bargain. The judges save time. The court system saves money. The defendant gets certainty and a reduction in penalty. The prosecutor is assured of a conviction.
The system “works” because defendants can (generally) trust judges to follow the recommendations. When judges go rogue the whole system gets messed up. Defendants have a much greater incentive to try their luck at trial if they are going to get the same sentence with a plea. I have advised many a criminal defendant. The “certainty” of the plea deal is key.
That said, I’ve seen judges in my district buck the plea offer (both ways – I once had a client get a deferred judgment when we didn’t even ask for it.) Prosecutors are bound by their agreement to argue for a specific sentence, but the Department of Corrections prepares an independent presentence investigation with an independent sentencing recommendation. Judges take that recommendation seriously.
One of the ugly aspects of the plea system is the “coercive” plea, which is what this sounds like. The State has to offer much less than they charged because their case sucks. The defendant has to take it because the risk of loss at trial carries too great of a sentence. It’s the worst of both worlds – either an innocent guy is pleading guilty, or a guilty guy is getting wildly underpunished.
mike c, and con dem, thank you for adding your voices of reason to this topic.
Silence