Justice?

My seventeen-year-old client pled no-contest today for six years of prison.

How f*(&d up is this job?

S. was charged with attempted murder for the benefit of a gang. The victim was attacked after a soccer game by three assailants, and knifed five times in an alley, once in the leg, once in the arm, and three times in the back.

The thing is, just before the attack, my client is seen walking with FOUR other "gang members" and was overheard saying, "Hey, these guys are just soccer players." The victim could not identify who his THREE attackers were. The knife wounds were each 2cm - indicating only one knife wielder, and nobody saw a knife, ever.

The DA charged my client as an adult, though he was barely sixteen when the crime occurred, with attempted murder - a life sentence if convicted.

This was a weak case for attempted murder, and a winnable case for the second count of assault with a deadly weapon.

At the preliminary hearing today, the district attorney offered my client six years for the assault and the "gang enhancement."

We figured that his exposure on that count (assuming we beat the attempted murder) was 13 years with the enhancements alleged, so he decided to take the deal.

If my client were an adult, I'd be thrilled with the outcome. But the grim reality is that a kid is going to prison where he will learn to be the gang member he is aspiring to be. He'll be out in about two and a half years a leaner, meaner son of a bitch.

He could have been saved. His participation in this event was at best a bystander, at worst a bystander with bad intentions. I don't know what led the prosecutor to direct-file on this kid. They could have asked the juvenile court for a fitness hearing, where a social history could have been done, we could have hired child-psychiatrists and social workers to take a long, hard look at this kid and decide whether this is someone society should throw away.

The voters of this great state gave the prosecution the power to skip the psychobabble and treat kids like the grown ups they aren't. Once a case is direct filed, there is nothing a defense attorney can do until the conclusion of the trial, and hope that the judge will sentence his client as a juvenile instead of as an adult. At least when that issue is dealt with on the front end, a defense attorney knows whether or not he's playing high stakes poker, and can better advise his client.

On the positive side, for my client, not only is there a light at the end of the tunnel, but there is, in fact, a tunnel. Getting out from under a life sentence can't be under-appreciated, I suppose.