Reductions for guilty pleas seem obscene in some circumstances. I remember a case a few years ago, a man abducted a 3 year old girl when her mum left the room to make him a brew.
Judge Stephanie Boyd in the US was being streamed when she refused to accept the negotiated plea deal in a SA of a young child case. She wanted a 20 year sentence (more than the deal's 15yrs). She ended up semi-reprimanded (for what people in the comments that she couldn't see were saying), the defence had her recused, and another judge signed off on the negotiated plea bargain.
A complaint against Judge Boyd filed with the State Commission on Judicial Conduct earlier this year describes a July 6 hearing for a sexual assault defendant.
Defendant Wilberth Villamil, who was scheduled to plead no contest in front of Judge Boyd to a single count of aggravated sexual assault of a child in exchange for 15 years in prison, instead saw his case delayed and then transferred to a different court.
“Is there a reason I should accept this agreement? Why am I accepting this agreement?” Judge Boyd asked as Villamil stood before her on July 6.
Commenters on the stream, which had been watched more than 8,500 times as of Thursday, described the defendant as “sick,” wrote other insults about him and wrote that he deserved longer than 15 years in prison as the plea hearing took place.
“This case is horrible,” said Judge Boyd, as she weighed whether to accept the plea agreement.
The prosecutor assigned to the case said the deal was offered because the family of the victim wanted closure and not to retraumatize the victim.
Judge Boyd, after hearing Villamil describe the sexual assault, said the court would be willing to accept a plea deal of 20 years, not 15.
Villamil’s attorney then said it would not be appropriate to discuss a complete reworking of the plea deal in such a rushed manner and the case was subsequently reset.
The case was then transferred to 227th District Court on Aug. 4. Villamil pleaded no contest on Aug. 24 and was sentenced to the original 15 years in prison prosecutors had offered, court records show.
The formal complaint against Judge Boyd states that she violated several canons of the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct with her statements made during the livestream.
https://www.ksat.com/news/ksat-investigates/2023/11/30/judge-boyds-court-recused-from-three-felony-cases-amid-fallout-from-youtube-stream/