Word: pleadings
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That left the hapless Bliley to convene a meeting of long-distance lobbyists in the Commerce Committee hearing room on July 13 to convey the grim news. Stunned, the lobbyists began a desperate effort to find someone to whom they could plead their case. "Nobody wants to talk to us," complained a lobbyist for the long-distance coalition early in the week. "Nobody wants to negotiate. Something is fishy here...
...Whatever the system, budget cuts, funding caps and an increase in the number of prosecutions for lesser crimes have created crushing case loads in most jurisdictions and fostered a type of assembly-line justice that often is not justice at all. In Atlanta 25 men line up together to plead guilty and receive their sentences, according to Stephen Bright, a visiting lecturer at Yale Law School. "The legal system is greatly overestimated in its ability to sort out innocent from guilty," he says...
Though Federico Martinez Macias spent almost 10 years on death row in Texas, the case against him was never strong. He was charged with a double murder arising from a 1983 El Paso burglary. The prime witness was himself a suspect, who was allowed to plead to a lesser charge for testifying against Macias. This man first told a grand jury that he had waited in a car while Macias committed the crime. But when confronted with evidence to the contrary -- including a failed polygraph test -- he subsequently admitted that he had gone into the victims' home and tied...
Michael Fortier, a friend of bombing suspect Timothy McVeigh, may plead guilty to limited charges in theOklahoma City bombingin return for his testimony against McVeigh and Terry Nichols, the only men charged so far in the case. Prosecutors say Fortier will testify, but that he is trying to bargain for the best deal possible. "This guy wants something for everything he says," an unnamed federal official told the Associated Press. Fortier could plead guilty to lesser charges of having knowledge of the conspiracy and lying to federal officials. One possible stumbling block to a plea bargain is Fortier's perceived...
...articulate and intelligent," Jones says. "He's definitely distressed and anguished about the charges. But when I saw him last, I think he was in good spirits." Jones has not yet disclosed whether he will seek a change of venue for the trial, but does say McVeigh wishes to plead not guilty. "I tell clients, based on what you tell me, I will construct a defense. If you're lying, it will crumble," Jones says. "I don't view this association with McVeigh as a suicide pact," he adds. "All I can say is, let's not have a prejudgment...