[pacala]

Indeed words have a meaning. If you issue a statement that "the defendant is charged with crimes that carry a maximum sentence of 35 years", then you inherently quantify the gravity of the defendant acts as a 35 year jail time crime. If, instead, you issue a statement that "we are seeking to put the defendant in jail for 6 months", then you quantify the gravity of the defendant acts as a 6 months jail time crime. These are not nearly the same and Carmen Ortiz never issued the second statement in public on the record.

We may further argue that this is how "everybody does this" and "she can't weaken her bargaining hand". To me, a justice system that depends on bargaining instead of truth feels fundamentally wrong. That is the deep issue at stake, and not the political fortunes of one Carmen Ortiz.

[MrScruff]

Consider an analogy. When we reason about the performance of algorithms, it's important to know both the worst case performance and the typical case. They're two separate bits of information.

[pacala]

Where is the on the record typical case statement? I haven't seen one yet.