But there was an unusual catch. As part of the agreement,
Sanchez had to sign away his right to benefit from any future legal changes,
including legislation or court decisions that might reduce his sentence. He
agreed, reported The Marshall Project.
The district attorney’s office in San Diego has proposed two
more such deals, both in murder cases, but the offers were not accepted.
While the number of these pleas is small, they come at a
time of tension between some “law-and-order” prosecutors and lawmakers
who have been changing the state’s criminal code to try to cut the
number of people in prison. Some district attorneys, include San Diego’s,
have publicly
pushed back on sentencing reductions.
Some lawmakers recently introduced
a bill explicitly aimed at blocking the new plea deals, which they
fear might become a common way to try to thwart their work. The bill’s sponsor,
state Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer, a Democrat from South Los Angeles, is
pushing for a public hearing in early July.
San Diego prosecutors say they created these plea bargains
to give crime victims a sense of finality. The deals will be used in “very
narrow and rare circumstances that serve the interests of justice and allow
victims of violent crime to have peace of mind that a court’s sentence will be
carried out,” according to a statement by district attorney’s spokesman, Steve
Walker. He added that if Jones-Sawyer’s proposal becomes law, “we would
certainly respect and follow it.”
Robert Weisberg, a criminal law professor at Stanford, said
that the deals could raise constitutional questions.
Pleas must be knowing and voluntary, he said, and it’s not
clear if a person can give up rights to something that doesn’t exist yet.
“This one is pushing the envelope as far as it can go,”
Weisberg said. “It’s a pretty slick and aggressive prosecutorial move.”
In March 2013, authorities arrested Sanchez in Mexico and
accused him of killing a San Diego woman in 2005. His case went
to trial last February, but the jury couldn’t reach a decision.
Sanchez is serving his sentence at the California
Institution for Men, according to records from the California Department of
Corrections and Rehabilitation. He did not respond to an interview request.
Katherine Braner, a spokeswoman for the San Diego County
Public Defender Office, declined to discuss Sanchez’s case, citing
attorney-client privilege, but she described it as “a very unique situation.”
In the deal prosecutors offered Sanchez, they pointed to
a 2013
California Supreme Court case that involved a man, known in court
filings as John Doe, who in 1991 faced sex-offense charges. He accepted a deal
that required him to register as a sex offender. At the time, only law
enforcement officials had access to the registry.
Five years later, California lawmakers opened the registry
to the public. The man filed a lawsuit, claiming the new legislation violated
the terms of his agreement. He said he never would have taken the plea bargain
if he knew his name, address and other personal information would be made
public.
The court ruled against him, finding that plea agreements
don’t insulate defendants from later policy changes. However, the court wrote
that it could envision deals crafted so that the parties agree the terms will
remain fixed even if the law changed.
The California District Attorneys Association has not taken
a position on the pleas.
The California Public Defenders Association opposes them.
“There’s an attempt by some district attorneys to literally
thwart the will of the people,” said Margo George, co-chair of the group’s
legislative committee. “Some district attorneys are trying to cling to the
past.”
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