04-18-2018, 08:26 PM
(04-18-2018, 08:01 PM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: Again, wholly incorrect. Enhancements do not make the enhanced offense any more or less difficult to prove. The enhancement must be proven for it to take effect, but if none of the enhancements are found to be true then the charge can still be proven guilty without any additional difficulty. In fact, enhancements being taken off the table are a frequent part of plea deals.
I didn't say it didn't make proving all alleged offenses more difficult. I said it doesn't make proving the enhanced offense, e.g. burglary, more difficult. I say this because it is 100% fact. Proving conspiracy is more difficult to proving a burglary, to be sure. But attempting to do so when the elements are there is absolutely just and services the public good. The fact that it isn't done is due to many factors.
An enhancement is not a crime, it is an "enhancement" to a crime, hence the term. Murder is murder whether it was committed by a common citizen or at the behest of a street gang. The later would carry the gang "enhancement" but proving the elements of the murder are made no more or less difficult due to the enhancement.
That's because you don't seem to understand the process being discussed.
They absolutely should. The unfortunate fact is that they frequently don't. I don't work for the DA's office but I can only assume they are subject to same political pressures that every agency I work for or collaborate with are. Hence my displeasure with the current state of things.
My point, which I’m not explaining well, is time. Yes, a prosecutor still has to show some sort of evidence of the criteria of these enhancements (other than repeat offender) to get them added. You can’t up it for conspiracy if you never laid out the timeline and pre planning done. Right now they just have to walk in and prove they were trespassing with intent to commit a crime. It’s overcumbersom for a prosecutor to even want to attempt for a relatively low level non violent crime.
I think all it would do is result in more plea deals down to where we are now anyways. I think repeat offenders in any crime pretty much should have a multiplicity applied to their sentence, so we have some common ground there.Interesting discussion.
