Legal Question in Criminal Law in Pennsylvania

Re: no contest

If the defendant is pleading "no contest" then he is not admitting that he is guilty of the offense. If the District Attorney is willing to accept a "no contest" plea, then I'm not sure what the effect of a victim's impact statement will be. I'd be a little worried about it causing the Judge to refuse to accept the plea and force the defendant to trial.

Re: no contest

The defendent has the right to call witness at sentencing. Usually those witness for the defendent at sentencing at testifying to say something about how the defendent is a good person or to mention something about some accomplishment the defendent has made in his life.

A victim impact statement is totally different. The statement is telling the judge that the defendent did something to me that greatly effected my life and i have sufferred and now i want the defendent to suffer.

The main difference is that the witness for the defendent are not going to talk about the case the itself. This is for sentencing, which means the defendent was either found guilty or plead guilty, so the defendent's family's sense of fairness in regard to the outcome is not relevant to the sentencing. In other words, if you think the defendent should not have been convicted, or that the victim did soemthing wrong, no one cares about that. If you say in court that the defendent should not have been convicted, etc, he will get more time from the judge because of your comments. If you are going to testify for the defendent, talk about him personally, how he is a good person, how he goes to church, how he helps his sick grandmother, how he had a drug problem, but he is clean now, or how he is attending community college. These are all the topics to discuss. If you are at setencing, the case is over, don't 'fight' the case at sentencing.

Good luck. Feel free to call at 215.825.5183 or email to [email protected]. GOod Luck,

Brian