At the contrary, the backlog in France is notoriously awful. But plea bargains simply don’t exist (well…for some years, they’ve been allowed in cases where the sentence is shorter than one year, in fact). In fact, there’s no plea at all. You can admit to your guilt in court and be acquitted, or the “prosecutor” can argue that you’re innocent and you can be nevertheless sentenced (admittedly, it’s very rare, but it happens). The prosecution isn’t much involved in the case before the trial and during it, its job is to argue on behalf of society which doesn’t necessarily mean arguing for guilt.
I get the point of plea bargains to reduce cost/backlog, but as I wrote above, when you end up having to choose between the certainty of 5 years behind bars and tossing a coin with the risk of getting life, that’s just wrong (again because those 5 years are necessarily unjust, guilty or not) The “deals” offered should be more reasonable and fitting.
Backlog issues could often be solved by throwing money at them (especially true in France which has amongst the lowest spending rates on justice in developed nations, and it shows). It’s not like our societies are so poor that we can’t afford some more judges. And justice is truly of massive importance for anybody involved with it for any reason (be it a case as dramatic as this one or a “simple” child custody issue, be it for the accused or for the victim). So, it’s money well spent, IMO.
If you want to know how his plea deal came about you can hear the whole story here in Brian Banks’s own words. It’s worse than what you already know.
Well…He seems to put most of the blame on his attorney. He doesn’t even mention the prosecutor, or the police, and only once the judge. Although he wonders how comes nobody saw through a 15 yo lies (especially since, from the interview, she doesn’t seem that good at lying).
Oh, and apparently, she wanted to meet him again because she was still into him?? 
Or did I misunderstand this part of the interview???
Am I the only one who thinks the girls mother might be the biggest asshole in this story?
I’d prefer examples like that be made during the actual case/prosecution. When an old case like this becomes the example, I worry that women who’ve successfully gotten away with this might become even less willing to recant, publicly or privately.
Why? What did she do apart from believing and supporting her daughter? (That’s a real, not rhetorical, question)
True on all counts!
I post on a board that’s about 90% female, and a lot of them are saying things like, “Even if he didn’t do this, he’s probably guilty of something” and also believed that “60 Minutes” doing the piece at the same time that the Steubenville story was in the news was simply a ploy to drum up sympathy for the Steubenville boys, because they got caught.
:smack:
As for Steubenville, that kind of thing went on at my high school more than 30 years ago, and while we didn’t have social media, there were Polaroids, and trust me, these rapes could have happened in full view of the city’s entire police department and nothing would have been done.
I asked some of the posters on that other board how they would feel if this happened to their sons, husbands, brothers, etc. and got crickets in response. :dubious:
When this thread was new, I read something that suggested the mother was the driving force in the accusation and lawsuit, possibly even the sex. I had thought it was a reliable source, but now all I can find is this
While I don’t consider that reliable, it hardly stretches the imagination.