PLEA BARGAINING—A NEED FOR REFORM

I met a man in the law library today who lost 22 years of his life for a childish incident. He was poor and unable to afford a lawyer.

He states that when he was in college, he was involved in an armed robbery of a person. They did not get any money, but the sixteen year old had a weapon. The sixteen year old who had the weapon went to juvenile and gave a statement against  him.  The witness did not identify him as the person with the weapon or at the scene. He was given a court appointed lawyer who told him that 20 years was the best he plea offer that he could get. He accepted instead of taking a chance and getting more than 20 years in Louisiana.  This would have been very likely for a 19 year old Black man at that time.

I remember representing a man in Beaumont ( Jefferson County) who was up for 5-99 years for endangering a child and other charges. He was offered 20 years on the first day of trial. We were granted a mistrial after a hung jury.  When we went back for a re-trial, the case was dismissed. The Court appointed lawyer did not represent his interest. She told him that this was the best that he could do in this case. He did not have a weapon, the witness could not identify him and he was a college student. This was allegedly his first offense.

I see this as the problem with plea bargaining. She told him that he would probably get a lesser offense because he was a college student and a first offender. She was white and did not properly assess racism in the equation. This Black man did not get a fair shake by the system. He got two more years added on when he tried to run away after learning of his sentence. He is bitter and angry at the world. He has a trade and makes more than $30.00 an hour at his trade. He continues to be victimized by the system in a number of ways. He has a child that he can no longer see but must pay child support. He is not being treated fairly there. He pays $130.00 more than he should in addition to 20% of his income per the state scale. He also has the child on his insurance at work. His problem is exacerbated by his distrust of the system.  He will not fight for himself or become involved in the “state”.  He calls himself a non-citizen who has lost all of his rights. This is really sad.  It shows that the problem is not only systemic racism but poor representation as well. It is a people problem for many reasons to great to get into at this time. Judicial Reform should include the Plea Bargaining Component of the system.