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Politics : High Tolerance Plasticity -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jim_p who wrote (20792)	3/5/2004 4:32:06 PM
From: Libbyt	Respond to of 23153

...this would never have happened to the average person on the street. IMO that is 100% correct...the average person hopefully would have admitted that they made a mistake, paid a fine, and would have gone back to their normal life. I've found this entire Martha Stewart trial interesting, especially after serving on jury duty last summer. I'm afraid that I've become more cynical of our jury system, because if often seems to matter not if you're innocent or guilty...but on the strength of your attorney, and "the gamble" of choosing the right jury.

To: jim_p who wrote (20792)	3/5/2004 4:48:58 PM
From: Aggie	Respond to of 23153

Hi jim_p I'm reminded of the Leona Helmsley case, and the similarity of personalities. Martha's offense was to mislead/lie to the investigators, a small offense in the bigger scheme of things, but then she had the audacity to think she could face them down on the basis of her standing. That's what got her the scattergun-of-charges prosecution approach. Poor choice of strategies on her part. But it doesn't pass the smell test to me, either - this one stinks of prosecutor self-aggrandizement and sugar-plum dreams of Larry King and Book Deals. Regards to all, opinions do not reflect those of management, user assumes all risk, your mileage may vary. Aggie

To: jim_p who wrote (20792)	3/5/2004 5:54:39 PM
From: S Shaw	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 23153

JimP: FWIW, Ashcroft has just sent marching orders to all prosecutors to tighten up on plea bargaining. It sorta has the effect of doing a frontal lobotomy on all prosecutors and taking away their discretion and consequently their ability to form an independent thought. Do I know of which I speak you ask. I spent a week trying a white collar federal criminal case in January in the here in Columbus. And I assure you it wasn't my first trip to the "county fair" either. I won't bore you with war stories about the abuses by U.S. Attorneys and the FBI but I have seen them first hand and it makes me disgusted, especially when I know that I have to help pay for that crap. Scott