Iranian-American signed plea agreement because his lawyer told him to sign

Iranian-American signed plea agreement because his lawyer told him to sign
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/05/31/306456/plea-bargain-agreemetn-court-us-justice-system-criminial-mansour-arbabsiar-terrirism-saudi-arabi-ambassador/
Arash Khalatbari, Press TV, Tehran
Fri May 31, 2013 3:33PM GMT

Mansour Arbabsiar, an Iranian-American used car salesman, was arrested at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport on September 29, 2011. He was charged with planning to assassinate Saudi Ambassador Adel al-Jubeir in a bomb attack on a restaurant in Washington. He signed a plea bargain offered to him by Preet Bharara, U-S Attorney for the Southern District of New York. After this one-sided out of court deal, which benefited the District Attorney, Arbabsiar was sentenced to twenty-five years in prison. He was represented by Sabrina Shroff, a federal public defender appointed by the court. Arbabsiar’s family says that Shroff used unethical means to make her client sign the plea bargain.

Experts say a defendant who goes to trial and is found guilty of a serious felony receives, on average, a prison sentence that is twice as long as the sentence offered in a plea bargain for the same offense. Yet Arbabsiar’s plea bargain agreement says that he “acknowledges that his entry of a guilty plea to the charged offenses authorizes the sentencing court to impose any sentence, up to and including the statutory maximum sentence”. Arbabsiar’s family says that he signed this agreement with his lawyer’s guidance and advice. They question why she would have advised him to enter into an agreement that was so detrimental to him. Arbabsiar’s mother has spoken to Press TV about her son.

His nephew also talked to Press TV. He stated that his uncle was at times influenced by action movie characters and talked liked them. He says he never thought his jokes would be used against him by US judiciary officials.

At the sentencing hearing, Shroff argued that Arbabsiar had committed the crime due to a longstanding, untreated bipolar disorder. Yet she had previously advised him to plead guilty in terms of a plea bargain.