Quote:
Originally Posted by Bearcat
I very much dislike the idea of stacking charges and pleas and all of that. I know someone who got some charges here a while back and it's like 8 separate charges... and apparently the county is known for doing that, I'm sure because some or most get dropped with a plea. I assume in the past they would charge someone with 1 or 2 and they would get dropped into lower level misdemeanors or whatever, so now if you have 10 ****ing charges, a plea of 2 or 3 looks amazing...... and each has a huge sliding scale of severity and being able to knock time off, etc. Very flexible for the infinite number of different situations, but also seems like there are far simpler ways to deal with the vast majority.
Anyway.... I don't know the "right" answer for number of years. I can definitely see the argument for 20 years being a really damn long time, he'd get out in his 40s or whatever and his career would obviously be far, far in the rear view mirror. Going in at 20whatever and getting out at 40+.... that's a long ****ing time.
OTOH.... play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
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Merger doctrine generally sorts out the stacking issue. You can't typically be convicted of one crime if the elements of that crime are wholly subsumed by the bigger crime you're convicted of.
It's just the prosecution putting all their options on the table. Generally speaking it's largely sorted out if/when it goes to trial. It's kinda the inverse of the lesser included offenses rule. I don't care for that one, but I don't typically mind stacking since it mostly comes out in the wash if/when the matter is submitted to the jury.