You are pointing out another unfortunate circumstance in our kangaroo court "justice" system. Whenever there is a jury trial, there is a strong bias for the prosecution and against the defendant. This bias has been demonstrated to exist and is well-known to any criminal defense attorney. Mr Gibbous' attitude is a perfect example. i.e. since Larry was charged with a crime, he must be guilty of something. No hard working, honest DA would ever try to railroad an innocent person. (Mr Gibbous, does the name Mike Nifong sound familiar?) ReardenMetal makes an additional point as to how this works. A common tactic of a prosecutor is to pile on felony charges so that a simultaneous conviction would essentially result in a life sentence and a conviction on even one charge would result in several years in prison. Consequently, the defendant is intimidated into accepting a plea bargain to save themselves from years of incarceration. When you consider what Larry was facing vs what he actually ended up agreeing to, it's pretty obvious that the DA in this situation really had no case to begin with. I doubt that his superiors are happy with his performance. I'd say his attempt to promote his career backfired.
Yes, Mr. Gibbous has proven in other threads to be dearth of logic, highly opinionated and vocal regarding things he knows nothng about. Ignoring these types may be a wise course of action. Slim
Yes, Mr. Gibbous has proven in other threads to be sometimes dearth of logic, highly opinionated and vocal regarding things he knows nothing about. Ignoring these types may be a wise course of action. Slim
Give me a break. I have nothing against LW. I think it's great he mostly got off. And screwing up his taxes is no big deal. Mostly it's fun busting 'Surfer's balls, so I usually take the other side of any of his posts. Especially his breathless threads expressing his love and admiration for LW and VN... Still if I was LW, and I believe he has said how much he likes to litigate, I would not bow down to the DA's wishes. If I knew I was innocent and they could prove nothing, I'd fight 'em to the end. Then I would throw malicious prosecution lawsuits at them. I would make them very sorry they messed with me, no matter how much it cost, or how long it took... I wish LW, VN, Surfy and All, a long and happy life. Trade Well.
It is really semantics what you guys are arguing about. He was not completely innocent (literally), but in reality he only made a few mistakes and not as much and as big as the DA originally claimed.... You would change your thinking in real life very fast, because: 1. The DA's budget is usually unlimited compared to your defense money. 2. They have the time and you don't. A case can drag on and on for years while your travel can be limited, your assets frozen,etc. 3. Others can be involved, see example below... Milken was originally charged with 70+ charges I think. He pleaded guilty to 5. Now what does it tell you about the strength of the DA's case when 90% of the charges don't stand? Milken was threatened that they would go after his brother too and he didn't want him to put through a possible jail sentence, thus he took the deal. He was dealt with an unusual harsh sentence though. And that is the other thing. A guaranteed small sentence now is better to take than an unknown but possibly harsh one later, even if you think you have the upper hand, because in law, you just never know....
In order to clarify the situation a little, I will report what Larry explained to an audience about a year ago when I was attending one of his courses. Larry had a large accounting firm complete his tax return. You would know the name of the firm if I could remember it. Some mistakes were made on the return by the accounting firm. Larry signed the return assuming that everything was correct. As you know, even if an accountant completes your return, once you sign it you are legally responsible for everything in the return. Most people with a return as complicated as Larry's with gains and losses from futures trading and multiple businesses would not have the knowledge to verify the accuracy of an accountant's work. So Larry was guilty of the errors on the return only because he signed something that he did not fully understand.
Pekelo - you hit it right on the money. A plea bargain deal is no different than taking a stop loss in trading. Better to take a known and small loss now rather than risking a much bigger one by holding your position. Unfortunately, "justice" (sic) doesn't end there. If you plead guilty to a plea bargain deal that results in a felony conviction, watch what happens next time you try to find a job. Some people are probably better off in prison where they can at least be guaranteed a roof over their head, meals and health care. Also, good luck trying to obtain any compensation for your legal expenses even if you eventually are proven innocent. A single felony charge can destroy a person financially. I know of one incident where a person committed suicide over these circumstances. It was personally satisfying to see Mike Nifong get his just rewards after he tried to railroad those 3 Duke students over completely fraudulent rape charges. Yet, there are tens of thousands of people incarcerated every year because of prosecutorial abuses. Most American citizens have no idea of how big a threat the US "justice" system is to their personal freedom. OK - soapbox over. Continued ranting on this topic is bad for my blood pressure.
You can decrease the odds of losing your personal freedom due to the US justice system by never talking to the police as explained in this video: http://media.regent.edu/lawPreview/031408_DontTalktoPolice.wmv