Two years for Plaxico

I have heard a number of legal experts speak about this, and that's been the universal reaction. (That includes Roger Cossack, who has said most people would not set foot in jail for this.)

You know what he pleaded to? Second degree attempted criminal possession of a firearm. You think two years is standard for that?

 

Question: If the sentence is out of line for the crime, then how come Plax and his defense team accepted it in the plea bargain?

 

Even worse, a guy who was allegedly drinking, runs over a guy gets 24 days in jail and Plax gets two years? WTF?

 

Because there was intense pressure to nail him, and the sentence could have been worse.

It's not out of line with the allowed sentences; it's out of line with what people typically get.

 

I saw Cossack, too, but he said he never said that. He did say others have been arrested and that Burress was a victim of his status, but he never touched on what others got for the crime. They might have gotten more time, they might have gotten no time. Cossack said he didn't know the numbers.

 

Yeah they do. Sox fans need a way to make their meth money.

 

And to be clear, I didn't hear Cossack today. It was earlier in the process.

 

I've heard several of Cossack's commentaries on this case, and I think it's fair to say that his general stance has been that most people who have committed similar offenses to Plaxico's either weren't arrested at all or were allowed to plea bargain down to a charge that did not require mandatory jail time.

There's also this from the NYT:
John M. Caher, a spokesman for the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services, said that fewer than 10 percent of the people in New York City who were charged with criminal possession of a weapon — the charge Burress is facing — were convicted of that charge and that many ended up being convicted of a lesser charge.

I think two years is excessive. Six months would have been sufficient, and Burress probably would have gotten something like that if he had just been Joe Blow.

 

Caher doesn't say what the pleas or sentences were.
Burress did plea to a lesser change.

 

Up here carrying a concealed weapon can get you five years.

Unless you're a repeat offender, it's doubtful you'll get anything close to that.

For a first timer, probably no time and probation for a year.

 

Ask Tommy Urbanski if he thinks the sentence was too harsh for a patron walking into a club with a loaded gun.