Moral Of The Story - Should Have Kept Quiet At Sentencing

In 2004, Pedro Cabrera appeared in front of Judge Leo Holt, ready to plead guilty to a robbery and accepting a 6 year prison deal worked out between his attorney and the prosecutor.  Judge Holt expressed amazement at how good of a deal his attorneys had worked out being that Cabrera had previously been convicted of 4 felonies.  Judge Hold said that "it boggles my mind."  When Cabrera had an opportunity to address the court, he told Judge Holt that he was really innocent.  Judge hold immediately stopped the proceedings and informed Cabrera that he would not go along with the deal.  Judge Holt stated that, "you don't have a right to cause me to disgrace myself and the criminal justice system by accepting a plea of guilty from you when you are, in fact, not guilty."  Cabrera begged the judge to accept the plea agreement because he felt that he could not beat the case at trial.  Judge Holt rejected his pleas and the matter proceeded to trial.  At a bench trial, he was found guilty of Armed Robbery and Burglary and sentenced to a total of 27 years.  According to the Illinois Department of Corrections website, he will not be eligible for parole until 4/14/13.  If he had not proclaimed his innocence, and Judge Holt had accepted the plea agreement, Cabrera would have been released a long time ago.

Today the Illinois Court of Appeals upheld Judge Holt's rulling and found that it was within his discretion to not go along with the plea agreement.

For more information about the Chicago criminal defense attorneys at Legal Defenders, P.C., visit us at www.thelegaldefenders.com or call us anytime at 1-800-228-7295.

Supreme Court Hears Arguments On Juveniles And Life In Prison

Today the United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments on a case involving whether it is constitutional to sentence juveniles convicted of crimes not involving murder to life in prison. We first discussed this in a post we published on May 10, 2009. The case before the court involves two juveniles sentenced to life in prison in Florida. The first case involves Joe Sullivan convicted of raping a woman in 1989 when he was just 13 years old. His attorneys have described Sullivan as being mentally retarded. The second case involves Terrance Graham who started serving a life sentence in 2005 for his role in an armed robbery when he was 17 years old. At the time of the armed robbery, he was on parole for a robbery. There are currently 109 teenagers serving life in prison. Roughly 84 percent of those juveniles are African American while only 13 percent of the U.S. population are African American. There are about 2,500 prisoners serving life in prison for crimes that were committed when they were teenagers. Other than Israel, the United States is the only country that routinely sentences juveniles to life in prison. Opponents of this practice are urging the Supreme Court to adopt the same reasoning it adopted in 2005 when it found the imposition of the death penalty against juveniles to be unconstitutional.

The cases are Sullivan v. Florida, 08-7621 and Graham v. Florida, 08-7412.

For more information about the Chicago criminal defense attorneys at Legal Defenders, P.C., visit us at www.thelegaldefenders.com or call us anytime at 1-800-228-7295.

Would Be Robber Walks When Store Owner Fails to Show Up In Court

Earlier this year, Efrain S. Castanon walked into a Crystal Lake store with three other men armed with a gun and tied up the store owner, Rafael Diaz and his wife while robbing them. Rafael Diaz broke free from the restraints, retrieved a handgun he kept hidden in the store, and chased the robbers out the store firing shots in their direction as they fled down a busy Route 14. Two of the robbers fled and were never found. Efrain S. Castanon was found and charged with Attempted Armed Robbery, Attempted Aggravated Robbery and Attempted Robbery. These are all Class 1 felonies and he was facing up to 15 years in prison. Because Rafael Diaz fired a gun at the men as they fled down busy Route 14, Rafael Diaz was charged with Aggravated Battery with a Firearm, a felony that was more serious than the charges faced by Castanon. Diaz posted $10,000 in bond money and has not been seen since. The case was set for trial on Monday in McHenry County, and prosecutors were forced to reduce the charges faced by Castanon and he received probation. The prosecutors informed the Judge that Diaz had fled the jurisdiction and was unavailable to testify. There is an outstanding warrant for Rafael Diaz. Efrain Castanon is still locked up in the McHenry County Jail because of a hold by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

For more information about the Chicago criminal defense attorneys at Legal Defenders, P.C., visit us at www.thelegaldefenders.com or call us anytime at 1-800-228-7295.