Ashcroft demands stiffest charges

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/2113968

Ashcroft demands stiffest charges
Plea-bargain opportunities limited by policy
By ERIC LICHTBLAU
New York Times
WASHINGTON -- Attorney General John Ashcroft on Monday made it tougher for federal prosecutors to strike plea bargains with criminal defendants, requiring attorneys to seek the most serious charges possible in almost all cases.

The policy directive issued by Ashcroft is the latest in a series of steps the Justice Department has taken in recent months to combat what it sees as dangerously lenient practices by some federal prosecutors and judges.

The move also effectively expands to the entire gamut of federal crimes the attorney general's tough stance on the death penalty, which he has sought in numerous cases over the objections of federal prosecutors.

"The direction I am giving our U.S. attorneys today is direct and emphatic," Ashcroft said at a speech in Milwaukee. Except in "limited, narrow circumstances," he said, federal prosecutors must seek to bring charges for "the most serious, readily provable offense" that can be supported by the facts of the case.

But critics in the defense bar and some federal prosecutors said the new policy would serve only to further centralize authority in the hands of Washington policy-makers, discourage prosecutors from seeking plea bargains, and ratchet up sentences in criminal cases that may not warrant them.

....more

Aschcroft is changing the court system and he wasn't even elected!

:bounce:

nt

Asscrack added under his breath, "...except when the defendants may be friends of ours or our contributors".

They have the divine right to do that!

Janklow is a road terrorist, like the asshole who killed my friend while cycling two weeks ago.