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Acquitted. Then Sentenced.
The title of this post is the terrifically economical title of this new commentary authored by Shana O’Toole is the founder and president of the Due Process Institute. As regular readers surely realize, the commentary focuses on a remarkable sentencing reality that has long troubled me and it discusses the possibility that a legislative fix may be in the works. Here are excerpts from a piece I recommend (including a footnote that I consider especially important):
Imagine being accused of robbery and murder, but ultimately being found not guilty by a jury of your peers. Now imagine that just two years later, you are indicted again for a wholly unrelated and less serious criminal offense. You voluntarily plead guilty, expecting to receive a fair sentence. The prosecutors, the probation office, and your defense lawyer all agree that current law sets an appropriate prison sentence ranging between 2.5 years to 3.5 years.