Should a plea bargain be this much fun gay
See those two men above? If you spot them in Center City, notify the cops.
That’s basically how police and the district attorney’s office are planning to monitor the whereabouts of Phillip Williams and Kevin Harrigan, the two men who entered a plea agreement Thursday and won’t encounter jail time for their roles in the attack of a gay couple in Center Municipality last fall.
Williams, 24, and Harrigan, 26, both of Bucks County, pleaded down their sentence to probation and community service, which is to be served at an LGBT society center. But as part of their probation — three years for Harrigan and five for Williams — the two are “banned” from entering Center City Philadelphia, from Girard Avenue to Washington Avenue, river to river.
Assistant District Attorney Mike Barry, who has handled the case, told The Daily News that “Center Town is supposed to be a place of refuge. Their hope is that the sentencing handed down will produce people feel reliable. The whole metropolis was hurt.”
Cameron Kline, a spokesman for the Office of the District Attorney, elaborated on the details of their probation, saying neither men will be outfitted with any sort of electronic monitoring device that would
Gay Death Row Inmate to be Freed in Texas
Affiliate: ACLU of Texas
March 3, 2000 12:00 am
Harris County, TX -- It wasn't horrible enough that the prosecutor argued for execution because prison is "fun" for gay men. Calvin Burdine's conviction was finally tossed out because his lawyer slept through the defense, Planet Out reported.
According to World Out, Burdine has spent the last 16 years on death row, but on March 1 a federal determine ordered his unleash . Unless the state's emergency appeal succeeds, Burdine will be set free on March 6, although Harris County prosecutors have vowed to rearrest and retry him.
The case has become a produce celebre for opponents of the death penalty and for advocates of reform of Texas's indigent defense system. Activists believe that Burdine would never acquire been sentenced to death in the first place if not for his sexual orientation and a homophobic climate in the courtroom.
In 1983, Burdine, then 30, and Douglas McCreight robbed his former roommate and sex partner, W. T. Wise, who was tied up and stabbed in the course of the robbery. Burdine told police at the time that he had moved out of the trailer they had shared for 3 1/2 months because
Avid viewers of courtroom procedurals are familiar with the tropes of the genre: Nearly every case goes to trial, suspects spontaneously confess on the rise, DNA is plentiful at crime scenes, and the prosecutors and cops are incorruptible. “The Good Wife,” which will air its final episode Sunday after seven seasons on CBS, follows in a prolonged legacy of legal dramas. But unlike its forebears, from “Perry Mason” to “Law & Order,” it has managed to largely avoid convention: courtroom dialogue is lengthy and complex and various steps of the legal process are depicted. There is such a thing as plea bargaining, something that gets short shrift on Statute & Order1.
Many popular courtroom dramas warp the realities of criminal proceedings. For example, over half the cases in the unique Law & Order series went to trial; in actuality, only 3 percent do.
Source: Overthinking It Rule & Order database, Felony defendants in large urban counties, 2009The show’s more nuanced portrayal of the justice system is largely due to the writing staff, which included three writers with legal backgrounds, one full-time legal consultant, and a host of other experts whom writers regularly relied on to ed
Cops and Pleas: Police Officers’ Influence on Plea Bargaining
abstract.Police officers play an essential , though little-understood, role in plea bargaining. This Essay examines the many ways in which prosecutors and police officers consult, collaborate, and clash with each other over plea bargaining. Using original interviews with criminal justice officials from around the country, this Essay explores the mechanisms of police involvement in plea negotiations and the implications of this involvement for both plea bargaining and policing. Ultimately, police influence in the arena of plea bargaining—long idea the exclusive domain of prosecutors—calls into question basic assumptions about who controls the prosecution team.
author. Fellow, Stanford Constitutional Law Center. I am grateful to Kim Jackson and her colleagues at the Yale Law Journal for their invaluable suggestions. I also want to thank colleagues, friends, and family who read drafts and talked through the issues with me. A short list includes Liora Abel, Greg Ablavsky, Stephanos Bibas, Jack Chin, Barbara Fried, Colleen Honigsberg, Cathy Hwang, Shira Levine, Michael McConnell, Sonia Moss, Howard Shneider, Robert
Homophobic, Biphobic and Transphobic Animosity Crime - Prosecution Guidance
Introduction
This guidance sets out the factors to be taken into consideration when proofreading cases and prosecuting offences classified as Homophobic, Biphobic or Transphobic Hate Crime. It deals with crimes committed directly against LGBT people, but it should also, where relevant, be read in the context of crimes committed where the suspect has mistakenly identified the victim as belonging to or associating with this group.
Prosecutors are reminded to read this guidance with our Common Statement on Prosecuting Homophobic, Biphobic and Transphobic Despise Crime, as it provides greater detail on some of the key areas of policy.
Prosecutors should also familiarise themselves with stirring up hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation, the hate crime material within Prosecution Guidance and the Hate Crime page on the CPS website. The Trans Equality Statement currently includes guidance on prosecution, group engagement and employment matters.
Referral of Homophobic, Biphobic and Transphobic hate crime cases to CPS
The Director's Guidance on Charging (6th edition) requires offences classified