Cling though one might to the old saying ‘you can’t judge a book by its cover,’ it’s difficult to look at Bryan Kohberger – especially at the creepy vacuousness of his eyes – and not conclude there is something seriously wrong with this dude. Why did this apparent freak of nature slaughter four college students in Idaho in their sleep with a hunting knife four years ago?
Thanks to a new plea deal Kohberger’s attorneys have reached with the State of Idaho, we’ll never know.
“We are beyond furious with the state of Idaho,” the family of one of the victims said of the deal, “They have failed us.”
According to the plea agreement, Kohberger will be spared death by firing squad and instead be allowed to spend the rest of his days in prison. To those who object to the death penalty on philosophical or religious grounds, the deal offers a different point of outrage: the perpetrator will never have to explain himself.
At a hearing today, Kohberger is expected to confess his guilt in accordance with his particular deal, and the proceeding is expected to last about an hour.
So heinous were Kohberger’s crimes, and so galling is the prospect he’ll be allowed to keep secret why he committed them, there’s still a tiny chance Idaho may change its mind and renege on the offer. Whether they do or – more likely – don’t, this absurdity masquerading as justice may just be enough to get Americans to start questioning plea deals themselves.
The argument for offering a defendant a deal in exchange for a guilty plea is that our criminal justice system is over-loaded with cases and if every one went to trial, the already long waiting periods would most certainly violate the constitutional right to speedy justice. Fair enough, after childhood we learn that life after all is filled with concessions, compromises and “deals.”
Today in American trials, prosecutors enjoy average conviction rates between 75 to 80 percent in state courts and 90 percent or more in federal ones. This is due in large part to our system of plea bargaining. It stacks the deck for prosecutors.
To further maximize their advantage, prosecutors ladle on the charges creating something akin to a swarm of black flies, or drones. It becomes seemingly impossible to beat them all. I know this first hand.
In 2018, I was targeted by the special counsel in the now de-bunked Russia probe. They threatened to charge me on a range of offenses. This is crazy, I told my defense lawyer. Yes, he agreed, and we can probably kill at least two of them at trial, but I can’t guarantee we’ll get all three — one might well stick, he said dejectedly. Plus, a trial would have cost me over a million bucks, which I didn’t have lying around.
So I accepted a plea.
In a curious twist of fate, I’ve been on the victim’s side of this as well. When I was finally done with my bedevilment at the hand of Dream Team Mueller, I was knifed on the street in Washington — stabbed eight times in the back (to be frank, the physical back-stabbing was better than the figurative one because it was more honest and straightforward). The prosecutors in that instance offered my assailant a plea. It’s just the way it goes, they shrugged in a manner not all that different than my defense attorney.
There was nothing unique about my situation. Americans face inflated charging sheets every day, and they are pumped up for a reason, any honest prosecutor will admit. The house always wins, another saying goes. With a 90 percent success rate, the statistics bear this out. Years and years of legal limbo can be as bad as prison itself because at least those terms are finite.
The power to pressure Americans into accepting plea deals only invites prosecutorial abuse and – in some cases – corruption. If the power to tax is the power to destroy, what do you call the power to bargain for justice?
In free societies, the courts are open to all because it is in everyones’ interests to see justice done. Not only can it be cathartic, but it restore’s the state’s aura of legitimacy. Even in unfree societies, like Iran or the Soviet Union under Stalin, autocrats put on a pantomime of open trials for similar reasons. Behind the curtain plea deal arrangements between shady lawyers rob us of this primitive right.
In cases like Kohberger’s, plea deals also deny the victims families and society at large the open airing that the injustice they have suffered demands. Why? Because we wouldn’t want to make the poor, overburdened prosecutors work too hard.
But maybe we should.
