You can't force the other side to play. You put a check in the win column and you count your blessings.
In any other circumstances, that's exactly what I'd do.
Why does this kid deserve such special attention?
Because he's pleading for the wrong reason. His lawyer tells him that he's born bad. We tell him he's raised bad. He buys both stories. Sees his life as a dead end.
Maybe he knows his life better than you do. Your job is to convict, not to rehabilitate.
He's a 14-year-old kid who gave up.
So you're doing him a favor.
If he gave up his illusions, right, but he gave up hope and I drove him to that. Now anything might happen to that kid in prison.
Gary Gilmore. Westley Dodd. Two unrepentant killers. Everybody wants them dead until they agree, and then we turn them into folk heroes.
We had nothing to do with their fates.
You want them to start naming churches after you, I'd get another profession. Take the kid's plea. Move on to the next case.
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