As long as he disclosed and the defense used whatever evidence he personally felt meant the guy didn't do it, then I think he's in the clear ethically. My personal belief on something isn't really relevant as long as I'm not basing my belief on evidence that the finder of fact won't have.
We didn't dive into the details, but from what I gather it was the old "he said, she said" and my friend wasn't very convinced by what "she said". But apparently the judge was.
I bet it matters to the guy that got hit with a tribunal rape conviction for something he probably didn't do (lol dindu). But yeah, my friend probably got an "atta boy" since the military wanted to look tough on sex crimes.
You definitely get into a weird area there. Because if the guy in question has discretion, and doesn't believe his own case, he should in good conscience drop it. But it sounds like his boss told him to take the case to trial regardless, and the judge believed her. My question would be, did anything happen outside of court or did he have a conversation with her that made him not believe her? If so, did he disclose it to the court/defense? There's no attorney/client privilege between a prosecutor and victim.
Yes the interests of the state. Which may or may not coincide with the interests of its citizens. I'm not gonna get all conspiracy theory here but let's not pretend that terrible shit doesn't happen because of political pressure.
I didn't say it's understandable I said it's not exceptional. Happens every day. Ya'll are acting like the only reason he got probation is the affluenza crap, but it's not. I have been sitting in court and watched someone get convicted of murder and get probation.
You don't hear about it because the news doesn't report on it because there's no rich-boy schadenfreude to report on. I worked on behalf of indigent criminal defendants all throughout law school. As long as they aren't gang bangers the juries are just LOOKING for reasons to give poor kids who never had a chance, a second chance. You should go to the courthouse one day and just sit in on some shit and see what goes down. Seriously.
My guess is that people are mad that he got offbecausehe was wealthy, not simply some resentment of him having wealth. We all know that the criminal justice system is flawed, but nothing like a clear case of bias to get people into a frenzy. To me, its kind of sad that one kid getting off too easy is enough to create a national spectacle, but the hundreds that get buried because they're poor every day is only a human interest piece once every couple of years.
Not arguing that at all. Just saying you seem to be apathetic just because you see stupid shit happen often. Person A getting away with something because of some ridiculous defense doesn't excuse the fact that Person B is getting away with a different crime because of an equally ridiculous offense.
Maybe I'm jaded but my reaction is so what. Humans gonna human. I don't have enough outrage left in me to think that is an absurd result anymore. The only other thing you can do is take wealth into account when sentencing and say "well this kid was from a wealthy family, and he fucked up despite his opportunities. I say we put him under the jail to balance out his life." Which is equally unfair. Anytime you have a person of some privilege (fuck you for making me type that) and he gets any kind of leniency people are going to be up in arms about it assuming it's because of his privilege. It's just tired.
I know you don't like me, so expect me to lash out when you give me one of those passive aggressive asshole 1-liners in response.
I'm not outraged either. There is a difference between outrage and just saying "This is absurd. And it's fairly obvious his wealth was at play". That was the defense after all. The assumption it's because of his social standing might seem tired to you because you see it often but that doesn't really excuse the decision made. Wealthy people get treated differently. Attractive people get treated differently. It's true, that's life. Just because it's commonplace doesn't make it OK in a case where 4 people lost their lives.
The defense failed just as spectacularly as you would expect it. It only would be outrageous in my eyes if that shit had worked. The judge is the reason this little shit isn't in jail, not the jury.
