People obviously don't understand what a plea bargain is. I'll summarize. A man is accused of trying to kill his girlfriend by setting her house on fire. He's charged with attempted murder, attempted assault, burglary, trespass, arson, and malicious burning. He's arrested and can't make bail so he sits in jail for six months. The gov knows they won't be able to convict him of attempted murder because it would be nearly impossible to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he knew she was home at the time. They could try him on the other top charges but the gov likes to keep their 97 percent conviction rates intact. With the guy already having spent six months in the can, which is about the same amount of time he'd have spent if he was found guilty of arson, the gov let's him plead out to one count of malicious burning, gets their conviction, puts the guy on five years probation and let's him walk with time served.
The system is just a joke anyway. A friend of mine said it took him $10,000 to defend himself on a bullshit charge which he beat, and it cost the crown $17,000 to try to prosecute him and he didn't understand the point of it since the crown needed $17,000 in tax dollars to attempt to prosecute him.
That's the gag.
The legal system is in a battle for financial resources with other government services and will do whatever it takes to acquire them, including ruining or attempting to ruin the lives of innocent people. The bottom line is not justice as some people naively think - but money. In the scenario I described above, $27,000 went to the legal system, so rather than looking at it as a net loss of $7,000, you have to look at it as a net gain to the system as a whole.
In Canada, you can pay to get a pardon after 3-5 years which will eliminate your criminal record, and you can pay additional money to get pardoned through the US system. What happens to a poor person who cannot afford this? Why, he keeps his record of course. But wait - money will make an equal criminal turn back into an ordinary citizen? But isn't the point of the justice system to protect citizens?
Nope - it's all smoke and mirrors and that's the gag.
except for going cold-turkey for two months without testosterone, et al. Oh, and eating only 90 grams of protein a day. how much weight do you think he lost?
I would assume about 10 pounds within the first four days and a slower and more stable decline from there.
