Posted on 08/14/2007 5:04:37 AM PDT by libstripper
I said they do not take the tax cases to court, they alway settle like they are trying to do this one, with some under handed plea deal. And my statement of no conviction, based on a jury trial is that one are more people will hang the jury. Read slower.
That is your statement.
No reason to 'read slower', the implications were that it was virtually impossible to get a tax conviction in 'that part of the country'.
Your adding the notion of 'hung jury' doesn't change the fact that people in that area do go to trial for tax evasion and some do get convicted-unless that portion (Virginia) is totally out of the norm for the nation is general.
All Americans are naturally sympathetic to the average 'tax evaders',(that was what the Nation was founded on!) but when it is a millionaire engaging in criminal pursuits, I think that sympathy will erode quickly, even in Virginia!
Yep, two sets of additional Indictments, but they won’t come down til Monday or Tuesday from whats being reported elsewhere this morning.
Apparently Vick is trying to get ‘less than one year in prison’.
I’ll be really irritated if that transpires...unless it also results in his never stepping on an NFL field again.
The Feds, the same people who convicted Scooter Libby without a crime. If it is politically to their advantage this is one toasted puppy.
Unlike der-slickster, Vick can’t fire anyone who had been investigating him before he took office and he doesn’t have the friends in the press to demonize the prosecution. In fact, the press has made little comment about the real charges in the indictment filed against Vick.
Your figures aren't quite correct, judging from a Department of Justice website I just visited.
Looking at the year 2004 statistics from the Bureau of Justice Statistics [http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/fed.htm] it says the following:
"..Cases were terminated against 83,391 defendants during 2004. Most (90%) defendants were convicted. Of the 74,782 defendants convicted, 72,152 (or 96%) pleaded guilty or no-contest. ..."
Now if you apply some rudimentary math to those numbers, they say:
- a 90% overall conviction rate
- all but 4% of the convictions were obtained by pressuring for a guilty plea
- for the remaining cases not pleaded out, the Feds obtained 2,630 convictions against 8609 acquittals (or otherwise-dropped cases without getting a conviction). That equals a 23% conviction rate specifically against those accused who fought the case and did not plead guilty.
I want at least a confession and well over 1 year in jail, that way he’ll hopefully miss two full seasons of football, and we won’t have to watch him and listen to the endless breathless announcers about how “great” he is...
When the feds draft something, it results in a conviction rate over 94%.
Your figures aren’t quite correct, judging from a Department of Justice website I just visited.
Believe what you want. My percentage is based on a couple of decades, not a single year cherry picked....(pun)
Only a year?
A homeless man in Maryland was sentenced to 3 years in prison for stomping two cats to death. These types need to be locked up.
Unless they add more charges, I don't think he will. Federal court means federal sentencing guidelines, and what they have charged him with, right now, just won't result in major prison time. I looked it up--the charges have a base offense level of 6--that doesn't even require prison time. That could increase if the Feds can prove some ancillary conduct beyond a reasonable doubt, but as it stands right now, it doesn't seem to me that he's really looking at a lot of time.
I wasn't quibbling about the negligible difference between 90% and 94%. You missed the point. Even assuming 94% convictions, my bigger point is that most are obtained through confession/plea bargain.
But when you isolate the cases where the defendant fights back and moves to go to trial, the numbers are DECIDEDLY different, and that was my point in reference to Vick.
The point I illustrated, using 2004 numbers (they were the first ones I found on a google search, but they are indicative of year to year pattern), would stand up for any of the years you're referring to as well.
I'm wondering how the Commonwealth of VA is going to proceed with the violations of state law...Hopefully the prosecutor there will stick to his guns.
Ahhh.
I see what your getting at.
I dont’ see him avoiding a plea bargain...but if he’s that stupid, then your numbers will perhaps come into play.
Personally, I think he’s toast either way...the only question is will he cut a deal and do a year, or fight it and do a decade.
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