Word: plea
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...save the state the time and expense of a trial, I will let you off with a light sentence." The offer comes from a judge. The second party to the bargain is a nervous defendant accused of a crime, almost certain to be convicted, and tempted to "cop a plea." The prac tice is one of long standing. And it has advantages for the public as well as the accused: it clears crowded dockets and sometimes extracts information about other crimes and other criminals as part of the bargain. But is it proper...
...mixed up in such deals. A 65-year-old jurist with a reputation for working long hours and never ducking the tough cases, Weinfeld insisted that the bargain deprives a defendant of his rights without due process, impairs a judge's objectivity, makes a sham of the guilty plea and "has no place in a system of justice...
...degree manslaughter, I will sentence you to not more than ten years." When time came for sentencing, however, the judge allowed that when he made the deal he had not known that the stabbing was Elksnis' second felony. Without asking the defendant whether he wanted to change his plea to innocent, Brenner sentenced him to a whopping 17½ to 35 years...
Brenner denied Elksnis due process when he did not tell him that he could change his plea, said Judge Weinfeld; more important for other cases, even if Brenner had kept his word, the whole pact violated rules of "fundamental fairness." Such bargains, said Weinfeld, are inherently wrong because of "the unequal positions of the judge and the accused, one with the power to commit to prison and the other deeply concerned to avoid prison." A guilty plea "predicated upon a judge's promise of a definite sentence," he added, "by its very nature does not qualify as a free...
...Plea for Defenses. Wilson was also receiving criticism last week on the colony of Aden and the South Arabian Federation, which is due for package independence in 1968. Early in the week four South Arabian Cabinet ministers ar rived in London to discuss ways for South Arabia to avert almost certain subversion and take-over by Egypt's Nasser once Britain pulls out its 13,000 troops and closes down Aden's Khormaksar Airfield. To beef up its 5,000-man army, South Arabia wants 5,000 British troops, some patrol boats and spotter planes, a couple...