Hate Crime

[Catbird]

>>>Update<<< Plea Bargain

I found this update via the West Seattle Blog.

Checking court files early today for West Seattle crime cases carrying over into the new year, we discovered something that so far as we can tell, has not been reported yet, though it happened three weeks ago: One of the two suspects in last May’s Highland Park beating/hate-crime case has pleaded guilty.

Court records show that 23-year-old Ahmed Y. Mohamed pleaded guilty December 13th to both of the charges filed against him and 21-year-old co-defendant Jonathan Baquiring – one count of robbery and one count of malicious harassment.

The plea agreement document in Mohamed’s case notes that all parties agree there was “different criminal intent” between the two crimes – robbery with use of a deadly weapon (the knife) and malicious harassment (hate crime). Mohamed, who has no felony record, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. But according to the plea-agreement documents, prosecutors plan to recommend 4 years in prison for the robbery count and 1 year for malicious harassment, to be served concurrently. His sentencing hearing is set for January 21st. Court records for co-defendant Baquiring indicate that so far, he is proceeding toward trial one month after that, in late February.

[Aglifter]

At least, according to the "theory" I was taught in law school, the reason for the lesser standard for attempt is to give a criminal an incentive to "repent" at the very last possible moment. Honestly, given how much more common attempt is to murder, they may have something.

Now, the idea that a criminal rationalizes, "if I stop now, I'll go to prison for less time" is absurd, since I strongly doubt more than a very small percentage of criminals are rational, and many murders/attempted murders are intoxicated people killing their friends/family members in an irrational state. I also think most of the people in this class don't really mean to kill, but they're angry, and have something lethal at hand. (Carving knife at the dinner table, because your brother took the drumstick, etc.)