>
> >What do I know, I'm a just a federal lawyer that deals with criminal
>fraud
>all the time.
>
>A top Los Angeles County public defender once told me that, in Federal
>Court, you can receive a stiffer sentence if you plead innocent and then
>are
>found guilty, rather than if you just plead guilty. Is this accurate?
Yup. If you go to trial, you don't get the credit for acceptance of responsibility under the sentencing guidelines that you get if you plead with sufficient alacrity and abasement, preferably implicating all and sundry.
>
>She also said, as you mentioned, that convictions are easier to get in
>Federal Court and that "if you're a defendant in Federal Court, you're
>screwed"...
>
>
I don't know whether they are easier to get in general in federal court. It wouldn't surprise me if they were somewhat easier in my court (N.D. Ill.) than in the Cook Co. courts, because the jury pool is the whole Northern half of Ill., or anyway the Chicago collar counties, and is therefore whiter, richer, and more conservative than the Cook County jury pool. Convictions are easy to get in any court, though. Indictment is tantamount to conviction.
As to whether you are screwed if you are a defendant in federal court, that's affirmative. "Screwed" is a technical legal term, you understand. When the jury comesin, the judge say to the defendant, "The jury having found you guilty, you are screwed." Like I said, don't commit any federal crimes.
--jks
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