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Victim doesn't want to testify, so alleged MIT rapist could get deal with no prison time

The Globe reports a woman raped in her BU dorm doesn't want to go through the trauma of testifying against her alleged attacker, at the time an MIT student, and so prosecutors have worked out a plea deal in which he would admit to the lesser charge of assault and battery and publicly apologize.

Only problem for Samson Donick is that the judge in the case is so shocked she might order him to graphically detail just what he did, which could potentially force him to admit to being a sex offender.

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Comments

“The more I think about this case, the less pity I have for the defendant if he was required to register,” Sanders said. “It’s the kind of behavior that the public is very concerned about, and wants to know about.”

That could be grounds for an appeal regardless of whether the judge orders the defendant to incriminate himself further beyond his guilty pleas.

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You do realize that judges can reject plea deals, right?

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But they can't order someone to incriminate themselves.

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It's called allocution, and is part of pretty much every plea deal. No the Court can't order the defendant can't order to testify against himself in a vacuum, but it can be a condition of a deal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allocution

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Regardless of what you might read on Wikipedia, what you're describing never happens in Massachusetts courts. At a plea hearing, the judge hears a summary of allegations from the prosecutor and then asks the defendant if he or she admits to them. If the defendant wants to add or clarify something, then that's permitted but it's the exception. It's certainly not a free-form storytime with the defendant under oath, and especially not when the offer could be rescinded.

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However, the defendant can withdraw the plea. The allocution is not going change t he plea but it will be under oath and be evidence in a civil case.

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This guy is a real polytroll.

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would you demand a credential proving that, too?

I know the leftie orthodoxy these days is that people aren't allowed to have opinions or allowed to come to conclusions about things without having a master's degree or higher in the narrow specialty that sells itself as the font of expertise in any particular area, but you do realize you can't go and admit that, right?

I mean who the hell is going to cede power to people whose whole shtick is doing the public's thinking for them?

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This appeal writes itself. The process for adjudicating a case in our legal system is clear. If the prosecutors cannot meet their burden of proof that is their responsibility, not that of the court.

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I'm not a lawyer but I don't think you can appeal a plea deal as it is an agreement that you've signed on to, not a conviction from a trial.
Hell, if she won't testify he could probably avoid criminal conviction at a trial because the conviction likely rests on her account of the incident but between him and the lawyer they probably have their reasons for wanting to avoid the trial.

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Good for the judge. Let a jury decide the fate of this entitled member of the rich and shameless class.If this rapist was a poor black or white kid from the projects he would be labeled a sex offender and shipped off to prison.

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I get the Judge's aversion to the deal, but it sounds like without the woman testifying, the DA can't get a conviction. The defendant really has the upper hand here.

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