Word: sirica
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Convinced that legal processes were well in motion to get at Watergate truths, Sirica sentenced the long-jailed burglars to relatively light terms; the minimums ranged from one year to 30 months, much of the time already served. Said Sirica: "I've given you the lowest minimum I thought justified...
...Argument Over Sirica's Tactics and Conduct...
Despite that outcome, Sirica has been severely criticized by some legal authorities for using the provisional-sentencing procedure as a device to get the defendants to cooperate with investigators. "We must be concerned about a federal judge ?no matter how worthy his motives or how much we may applaud his results?using the criminal-sentencing process as a means and tool for further criminal investigation of others," contends Chesterfield Smith, president of the American Bar Association. The association's president-elect, James Fellers of Oklahoma City, much admires Sirica and his Watergate role but likens the sentencing tactic...
...Sirica defends his action on grounds that no one seriously expected those severe sentences to be made final and that the law makes it mandatory that any provisional sentence must be the maximum possible; he did not have discretion to make it lower. Moreover, it could be argued that Sirica's efforts to determine the true motives and origins of the crime were relevant to his decision on how severely finally to punish the defendants. Yet it is also
...true that the men had every legal right to remain silent and that this particular use of provisional sentencing, while technically lawful, could infringe on their civil rights. Sirica, not much given to mulling over law theory, is unrepentant. To critics of his actions, including his persistent questioning of defendants from the bench, he has replied: "I'm glad I did it. If I had it to do over, I would do the same?and that's the end of that...