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Sunday, August 10, 2008
Ind. Courts - Lake Criminal Court drug defendants bargain for lesser sentences
Marisa Kwiatkowski of the NWI Times reports today in a long story that begins:
CROWN POINT | More than 96 percent of Lake Criminal Court defendants charged in drug-related crimes have pleaded their way out of heftier prison time in the last six months, a Times computer-assisted analysis shows.See also this ILB entry from Aug. 4 re last week's series in the South Bend Tribune about sentencing in drug cases.Illinois resident Elvin Long hacked his potential 149-year prison sentence for dealing cocaine and marijuana to six years with a plea agreement. He pleaded guilty to felony possession of cocaine and misdemeanor possession of marijuana in the first half of this year, court records show.
Randy Warner, who faced two felony charges of dealing cocaine and a misdemeanor count of possessing marijuana, was sentenced to three years of probation after pleading guilty to dealing a controlled substance.
The Times analyzed six months of drug-related case dispositions using Lake Criminal Court records and data provided by the Lake County prosecutor's office.
On average, defendants who entered plea agreements with Lake County prosecutors served about half the sentences of defendants who gambled on a jury trial, data shows.
And the pleas don't set well with everyone in law enforcement.
"If 96 percent are able to plea, it sounds to me that the prosecutors are doing as little as possible to get these people to serve the maximum sentence," Hammond police Cpl. Kristopher Howard said.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on August 10, 2008 09:18 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts