Originally posted by Memphis9er:
Originally posted by Wodwo:
Again, I just feel like sharing my experience with the CA legal system. I am not a lawyer and I only took two law classes while at the UofA. My step-Father was a lawyer and my Uncle is a Superior Court Judge, so I did grow up around people who knew the law.
I was arrested five times in CA for violent crimes. Each time had at least one felony charge and some had multiple felony charges. Only once did a felony charge stick... and that's because I took it to trial. I spent four months behind bars and a year and a half in a treatment facility for assault with a deadly weapon. I was arrested three times after that and each time took a plea bargain that brought all charges down to misdemeanors. I took deals that required outpatient treatment each time, which was no big deal because I was already getting that.
All of that happened in a relatively short period of time when I was young.
I have since been arrested once, over a decade after the other incidents. It was also for a violent crime. This time was truly not my fault. I had a paradoxical reaction to a high dosage of a powerful psychoactive medication resulting in a violent "black out". I could have fought this one, but over the years I have learned that it is always better to take a good plea bargain than go to trial. They will nail your ass to the wall if you don't. Felonies reduced to misdemeanors and continued treatment was what I took.
If you are putting in a serious effort to correct your behavior, the courts will support that effort.
There will be records kept about Aldon's time in rehab. They will be able to tell if he is taking it seriously. You can't b******t these people.
I am not as familiar with the politics involved in this case, though. I will say that I am less cynical about the people making the decisions in the courts than some others on this forum. They are all different, but they are still human... they do not lack empathy.
I am a far more dangerous criminal than Aldon Smith. I got help and changed my behavior, though it took some time. We'll find out how serious Aldon is about making changes.
Just try to remember that he can.
Note to self: Never piss this guy off...
Seriously though, here in TN the same is true, show a genuine effort and they will give you a genuine chance.
I'm an immigration attorney, but I get a lot of clients that have criminal issues, which affect their immigration cases. In the majority of cases, the records show that they were initially charged with a felony but later pled down to a misdemeanor. Now for the purposes of immigration law, it doesn't matter for the most part whether a crime is considered a felony or misdemeanor under state law, it could still carry consequences in immigration; and this is always an issue we have with public defenders and criminal defense attorneys who know nothing about immigration law. But they always get their clients to plead to misdemeanors and of the hundreds of cases I've seen, I think one actually had gone to trial.
