I really think it comes down to a "lesser of two evils" thing, as I said. I work in civil litigation and not criminal, and I know the rules are different, but I can see this being a thing where the attorney told him "look, you can either take this plea deal and do five to ten years at the most, or we can fight this and if you lose you're doing closer to forty years." Which would be just about the rest of this guy's life. Principle of the thing aside, I think if you're in the thick of this kind of situation you'd definitely give that some thought.
Yeah, I don't know about the sex offender thing. I can see that throwing a whole other line of thinking into the mix.
"Yep. That is definitely a depiction of a real act violating a real schoolchild. We should lock that dude away for the protection of society."
But that's not what they would be deciding. At the most, they would be asked to decide something broad like "does this depict a minor having sex?" And if they say yes, then they will be told what law applies and how. I don't think juries get a lot of "yes, but.."s - as in "yes, but it's obviously cartoony and not applicable." Juries are usually required to just determine the facts. "Did this happen?" They then are told what law applies, based on the facts they determined.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2009-06-07 02:49 pm (UTC)Yeah, I don't know about the sex offender thing. I can see that throwing a whole other line of thinking into the mix.
"Yep. That is definitely a depiction of a real act violating a real schoolchild. We should lock that dude away for the protection of society."
But that's not what they would be deciding. At the most, they would be asked to decide something broad like "does this depict a minor having sex?" And if they say yes, then they will be told what law applies and how. I don't think juries get a lot of "yes, but.."s - as in "yes, but it's obviously cartoony and not applicable." Juries are usually required to just determine the facts. "Did this happen?" They then are told what law applies, based on the facts they determined.