10-30-2018, 08:04 AM
Past histories of criminal activity vs first offenses, mental state, etc., often influence what charges get filed. Because charges are a messy balance of what someone did vs what the odds of conviction are. Ultimately, "fair" and "excuse" are whatever a lawyer can convince a jury to buy into. Actually, in most cases it's whatever a lawyer and prosecutor can bargain, since the vast majority of criminal charges end up as plea deals rather than courtroom trials.
If that bothers you, just ignore all my guesses about how things might turn out in the end and stick with the charges I cited. Those at least are pretty black and white in the criminal codes.
If that bothers you, just ignore all my guesses about how things might turn out in the end and stick with the charges I cited. Those at least are pretty black and white in the criminal codes.