Plea guidelines protect suspect's rights

Regarding "Not guilty pleas are too common" [Letters, Jan. 5], the writer suggests that our court system should double or triple the punishments for those who plead not guilty but are eventually found guilty, to "force those accused to give pause to their plea rather than almost automatically pleading 'not guilty.'"

While there is some rationale to that idea, we must consider that some defendants who believe that they are not truly guilty may thereby feel pressured into pleading guilty as a matter of expediency, and to avoid the risk of greater punishment in the event of being found guilty. That is not totally consistent with our ideals and our system of justice.

In fact, in cases where the sentence for a finding of guilty of a particular crime or offense is subject to varying degrees of punishment by the sentencing judge, those sentences imposed after a trial are usually more severe than those granted where the defendant pleads guilty. Those guilty pleas save the court system time and expense. In such cases, though, justice is not always well served.

Our system of justice is not, and can never be perfect.

Robert Wilson

West Islip

Editor's note: The writer is a lawyer.