Plea Bargains And Ethics

[hitch1978]

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Unethical for me. Because if I felt his crime was serious enough to warrant ten years, I could not in good conscious act to get him off. That is, I would likely feel that twenty years, while an injustice, was a better outcome than him getting off without punishment.

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This raises a few interesting thoughts for me.

Are we saying that the difference between 10y and 20y is less than the difference between 10y and 0y? My kneejerk reaction is to agree with you.

Also, does anything change if we alter the defendants age? 20YO man vs 55YO man?

How about how we gauge his likeliness to reoffend?