A person committed a serious crime and was offered a plea bargain of ten years. He refused the offer and was ultimately sentenced to 52 year...

Question

A person committed a serious crime and was offered a plea bargain of ten years. He refused the offer and was ultimately sentenced to 52 years to life.

This guy is a little off kilter mentally. He is essentially being sentenced to life in prison (he will be over 100 years of age at his earliest parole opportunity) He didn't have a prayer of being found not guilty and should have taken the plea. I don't believe that he understood the seriousness of his predicament.

I know there are movements to exonerate prisoners through DNA testing that was not available at their time of conviction and in fact men who have served many years were later found to be innocent. I wonder if there is any such relief available for someone such as this individual who I feel has been heavily penalized for insisting on a trial?

His name is Joseph Kruppenbacher. He is incarcerated at Clinton Correctional in New York.

Answer

There are motions that can be made regarding whether or not he understood the possibilities if he did not take the plea bargain. Usually it is up to the judge and to his attorney to be sure that he understood this before he rejected the plea. lIf his attorney did not advice him of the possibility of jail time if he refused the plea, there can be a motion made with him stating that he did not understand. However, the longer ago this happened the less likelihood of success.