Why do celebrities get cake jail sentences?

[theKit]

Anyone remember Old Dirty Bastard? Dude was an OBVIOUS criminal, shot multiple times, caught for burglary multiples times, caught with weed/cocaine MULTIPLE TIMES yet he only served TWO YEARS. If you got caught with weed you know your ass would be fucked.

RIP ODB, even though he was straight retarded, ugly as fuck he managed to sire 13 kids and make millions of dollars.

Also, this is the shit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGnYLj4IqhA

[Umbrella Corp]

Attorneys calling in favors for massive amounts of money.

[komokazi]

It's all about the $$$. When I was in jail, 18 yr old kid got fucking life for murder with a public defender... other dude, can't recall age, however, CAPITAL MURDER... spent like $50,000 on his attorney, got 14 years.

[Proots]

Others have already said it. The answer is extremely simple : money. Now, that doesn't mean that the richest man in the world won't get convicted, it just means that the more money you have, the less chance you have of being convicted. Not only that, if you are convicted, your sentence won't be as harsh as someone else in the exact same situation who may not be as affluent as you.

[Umbrella Corp]

Associations really make a difference in court.

If you can find an attorney who is friends with the judge, preferably who dines with or plays golf with them outside of work, you can get out of pretty much anything.

N it is not that hard to find em.  Usually if you are in jail you will hear about a certain attorney or 2 that you MUST HIRE if you got such and such judge.

[theKit]

Aren't a lot of cases decided by juries though?

Just because you have money and an expensive lawyer how does that translate into getting a lesser sentence for crimes when OBVIOUSLY there is a standard - judge sent kid to ail for 10 years for possession of weed, ODB gets two years for COCAINE despite his prior offenses? How is this justifiable? Having a more expensive lawyer does that just mean they KNOW more and can use more loop holes? What are you actually GETTING for your money that enables these lawyers to guarantee these slap on the wrist sentences??

[millionsofdeadcats]

Aren't a lot of cases decided by juries though?

Just because you have money and an expensive lawyer how does that translate into getting a lesser sentence for crimes when OBVIOUSLY there is a standard - judge sent kid to ail for 10 years for possession of weed, ODB gets two years for COCAINE despite his prior offenses? How is this justifiable? Having a more expensive lawyer does that just mean they KNOW more and can use more loop holes? What are you actually GETTING for your money that enables these lawyers to guarantee these slap on the wrist sentences??

I explained this in a post in another thread, but it works sort of like this:  Most cases are plea bargained before they ever go to trial.  By most I mean like 95%.

And the lawyer thing?  If you have a public defender, the judge sees you as a parasite, and inconsequential in society.  Therefore, he does not care about what happens to you, and by locking you up, he thinks he is actually doing society a favor.   The judge also figures that if your freedom isn't important enough to you to pay a lawyer for, then what the fuck does he care?

If you have a decent lawyer, the judge sees you as someone who cares enough about his life and freedom that you will shell out money for representation to uphold said freedom.  He also sees that if you can afford a lawyer, most likely you have the means to be productive in society, and that locking you up would be detrimental to your societal contributions.

[mojo4567]

Aren't a lot of cases decided by juries though?

Just because you have money and an expensive lawyer how does that translate into getting a lesser sentence for crimes when OBVIOUSLY there is a standard - judge sent kid to ail for 10 years for possession of weed, ODB gets two years for COCAINE despite his prior offenses? How is this justifiable? Having a more expensive lawyer does that just mean they KNOW more and can use more loop holes? What are you actually GETTING for your money that enables these lawyers to guarantee these slap on the wrist sentences??

I explained this in a post in another thread, but it works sort of like this:  Most cases are plea bargained before they ever go to trial.  By most I mean like 95%.

And the lawyer thing?  If you have a public defender, the judge sees you as a parasite, and inconsequential in society.  Therefore, he does not care about what happens to you, and by locking you up, he thinks he is actually doing society a favor.   The judge also figures that if your freedom isn't important enough to you to pay a lawyer for, then what the fuck does he care?

If you have a decent lawyer, the judge sees you as someone who cares enough about his life and freedom that you will shell out money for representation to uphold said freedom.  He also sees that if you can afford a lawyer, most likely you have the means to be productive in society, and that locking you up would be detrimental to your societal contributions.

that actually makes a lot of sense. Unfourtunantly this also means that people who might be contributal to society would get locked up because they cant afford stuff

[millionsofdeadcats]

that actually makes a lot of sense. Unfourtunantly this also means that people who might be contributal to society would get locked up because they cant afford stuff

'Might be'.  Anyone who 'might be' a contributing member of society, really isn't.  Judges do not give a fuck.

[theKit]

That is fucked up. What ODB and most celebs do can BARELY be considered contributing to society. What about the standards? How can the public just let a judge arbitrarily decide that one mans weed possession charge deserves more jail time than another man's cocaine/heroin charge? I was under the impression that there were standards as in written recommended sentence lengths for certain crimes and the judge just adjusted them a bit to fit the context (hence the reason you always hear about maximum and minimums) does a well paid lawyer really have the ability to sway a judge better than a public defender?? 

[millionsofdeadcats]

That is fucked up. What ODB and most celebs do can BARELY be considered contributing to society. What about the standards? How can the public just let a judge arbitrarily decide that one mans weed possession charge deserves more jail time than another man's cocaine/heroin charge? I was under the impression that there were standards as in written recommended sentence lengths for certain crimes and the judge just adjusted them a bit to fit the context (hence the reason you always hear about maximum and minimums) does a well paid lawyer really have the ability to sway a judge better than a public defender??

Like it or not, our system runs on incentive.  And incentives mean money.  So the more money you have, the better lawyer you can afford.  The better lawyer you can afford, the more the judge thinks of you as a human being.  It is just how it works.  Sad, but true.  Judges do have to follow certain guidelines, but they do have a lot of discretion in a lot of different areas, including interactions with the jury and what they are and aren't allowed to consider.

edit - wasn't there a zoklet member who passed the bar in alabama or tennessee or some shit?  What happened to that guy?

[aldra]