The captain of the Shepherds' boat, immune, like all of his crew, to pleas based on history, culture or traditional diet, replies, "How can it not be like that?" A crew member sums up the young eco-warriors' discomfort with having to listen to an adversary: "To actually have to come face to face and have these conversations, it's a little bit challenging".
He later said he had agreed to the plea based on his lawyer's incorrect advice that it would not affect his immigration status.
But she did not only deny his plea based on procedure; Ms. Harmon wrote that the scientists' reports were not credible because they each reviewed different kinds of evidence.
"I've never seen any case where a person was allowed to withdraw a guilty plea based on his expected treatment in prison".
Mr. Ward said he planned "to take a look to see whether or not there are grounds for a motion to vacate" Mr. Sarzynski's guilty plea based on Detective Palase's arrest.
An Afghan tribal leader convicted in an international narcotics trafficking conspiracy was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday by a judge in New York who rejected pleas for leniency based on the man's cooperation with the American authorities.
The chorus is a plea that's partially based on the Bond film's title: "Let the skyfall / When it crumbles / We will stand tall and face it all / Together".
The entire system is based on the plea bargain the exchange of evidence for immunity or a reduced sentence and is notoriously subject to abuse.
His lawyer, Thomas R. Ashley, said that based on the plea agreement with federal prosecutors, "we would expect a sentence in the range of 18 to 24 months," but the judge is not bound by that.
Much of the hearing, which lasted nearly two and a half hours, was devoted to arguments over which sentencing guidelines, if any, the judge should follow, or whether sentencing should be based on the plea agreement already reached.
The Judicial Conference committee asserts that "any member of the public who reviews the docket would be unable to determine, based on the plea agreement, whether a given defendant has cooperated".
