Magical thinking strikes again

To the list of great expectations, e.g., that victims or eye-witnesses will recant once they're on the witness stand, add this one:

- the person (drug owner, phantom driver) who really did the crime (owned the drugs, drove the car) will come forward and take responsibility so I won't have to do the time.

Number of times this has worked in my career: once (Canyon County, Idaho, 1997, our witness in a jury trial for felony driving without privileges)

Number of times my clients have left decent plea bargains on the table thanks to this expectation, and seen things go much worse at sentencing: I don't have that many fingers and toes

(Aside apropos of nothing: there was a long time when you could get a felony conviction in Idaho for driving with a suspended license - really good use of prison space there. I had one guy go to the yard on a DWP; unfortunately, he told the judge that his probation plan was to go to truck-driving school.)