Dino-Biologist

blownapart:

remmbermytitans:

Moral of the story? Women matter less to the US government than a few downloaded copies of a Glee episode.

All / any of my feelings about either person and/or their sentence aside - they’re making Kim Schmitz into an example. Also, Miguel Carcaño is the offender’s name on the right, not Miguel Carano - and HE is in Spain, from Spain, etc. Kim is not.

LET ME REPEAT, HE IS IN SPAIN, NOT THE US. Comparing sentencing and punishments from the US to Europe…not even something that I’m going to touch in this post.

Also, he (Kim) hasn’t been sentenced yet. They’re pushing for a max sentence,  which is typical of criminal prosecutors - that way, they can essentially ‘coerce’ a plea bargain from the offender. 

In a nutshell, based on what little I know about law: the prosecutors will push for the max sentence. If he plea bargains, he will do significantly less time - no trial, just in and out, go on and do your 25 years instead of 50 or whatever. If he decides to plead innocent and request trial by jury, 9 times out of 10, the jury will convict him for the max sentence. If he goes to trial, he could potentially walk out of the courtroom a free man or he could die in prison.

I don’t know about copyright cases and their ratio of jury convictions, though. 

EDIT:

I went and looked for more information about Miguel Carcaño. The body was never found, the prosecutors were pushing for 52 years. He pleaded guilty, confessed that he killed her, and stated that he did not know where the victim’s body was located. He is doing 20 years instead of 52 years because of a plea bargain, basically. Still not touching the topic of comparing sentencing from US to Europe, though.