QUESTION
is it someones right to decide weather their case goes to trial or they accept plea deal? or can their attorney force them to go to trial?
Asked on Sep 12th, 2012 on Criminal Law - Indiana
More details to this question:
my son is 18.he is being accused of selling .3 meth withing 1000 ft of a family complex to a wired c.i. his court appointed lawyer and him have listened to the tapes.there is nothing on the tapes that talks of buying or selling drugs.they also had no female officer present to search the female wired c.i. before or after she supposedly bought from my son, instead of plea deals my sons attorney is telling himhe has to take his case to trial. that he has no say so in the matter. is this legal? should he be able to make that decision of trial. there is no talk of drugs on the tape that the police have but its scary cause if my son loses at trial his lawyer is telling him he could get 12 years behind bars. hes 18 and has never been in trouble for drugs.
1 ANSWER
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Jeffery M. Haupt Attorney at Law
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A person has a right to hire and fire their attorney. Now if he has a public defender, it gets bit more tricky about getting a different attorney. Most attorneys are not quick to go to trial, unless they feel that the case against their client is not that strong (or if their client is pushing the issue). If your son truly wants to plead guilty he should talk to his attorney about this. However, he could be taking this matter to trial, because the plea deal isn't that great and there really isn't that much at risk by going to trial. There could be many reasons why a trial could be the best choice.
Answered on Sep 13th, 2012 at 8:31 AM