I used this argument on another thread, but when it came to child icac stings, Minority report come to real life. People who actually commit such crimes have much better odds to plea to no sex registry charges while you need to have a very good case of one is caught in a sting, even if language is tame and Leo’s bringing sex into conversations.

They close down Craigslist and backdoor now they’re using all kinds of adult dating apps, I wouldn’t be surprised if they infiltrate paid dating websites soon like match and eharmony. Icac needing excuses for funds.

Not likely. On a State level 95 out of 100 cases result in a plea. The percentage is higher in Federal.

This isn’t a system of trials but of pleas as noted by Justice Scalia in either Missouri v Fry or Lafler v Cooper.

All too often people accept a plea rather than go to trial for a multitude of reasons. The biggest problem with that is once a plea has been confirmed by the court it’s so hard to get a second look at it within the system.

@Eric/MJ I would also expand mindcrime to include possession of child porn. You are being punished not only for the future assaults the so-called authorities claim you will commit, but for what the assailants in the pictures and videos have already done. This is similar to having more punishments heaped upon the entire spectrum of registered citizens because of the vileness of a few idiots (Couey, Smith, etc.). Many of the restrictions placed on those who posses child porn, be it by probation or registration requirement, much like the aforementioned stings, should be unconstitutional since no physical crime was actually committed.

I find it grotesquely ironic that a years-long prison sentence, followed by years of probation, and lifetime registration can be meted out for a so-called crime with no “hands-on” victim, yet career criminals get by with a year or less in jail, no probation, and no requirement to be on the registry, for engaging in sex with underage teens!

How is this possible? Many offenders with real hands-on victims are allowed to plead down sexual assault, lewd and lascivious, etc. to child abuse which does not require registration! But, if a person has a child porn case, they are not allowed to plead down. WTF???

Prosecuting and sentencing people with no victims is being punished for what the government thinks that person will do, thus a mindcrime.

The sting never even involved a minor, fake or otherwise, involved in the chat transcript. The entrapment officer was role-playing the part of a parent who had a kid that he wanted exposed to sex. This is what constitutes crimes of the mind for the most part.

You know, you are absolutely right. I too was caught up in a sting operation.
As I said to my lawyer, if I were walking by a bank with a friend and I said we should rob the bank and then walked by and never went in, could I have been arrested for committing a robbery. Problem is what can we do about ant of this. We are considered the lowest of the low. No state in this country and no country in this world would make life easier. It becomes hard to just suck it up and keep moving on.
A life sentence for some random thought.
Sometimes I feel like a witch in Salem Mass. But at least they were put to death. What do we have to look forward to.

Sorry for rambling…
D

Exactly. A minor isn’t necessarily going to speak or suggest the same ideas as an undercover officer. Also, it’s highly likely the minor isn’t going to be using a “chat room” like these officers use, because that’s not what people that age do these days. I cannot believe they allow this type of ‘policing’ to even exist. I guess when you don’t have enough crime you have to invent it. Good ol’ USA: Ensuring no law enforcement agencies ever have to eliminate 1 job.

In every other case involving entrapment (and these cases are entrapment), opportunity or commission of the crime is necessary. Without that, there’s nothing to prosecute. Not so for SO entrapment. They wouldn’t even make it to the prosecutor’s desk if it were regarding any other class of crime, even if they survived a bail or preliminary hearing.