There's lots of news these days about the Bernie Madoff case. Apparently, he's going to plead guilty today, without a plea agreement, exposing himself to a virtually certain life sentence. I wonder why he's doing that. An interesting article, available here, tries to figure out the angle, but comes up empty. Could he have suddenly developed a conscience? Does he just want to go on his own terms, and make one final splash? Even more interesting to me is the attitude of some of his victims. Remember, he's pleading guilty as charged, to all counts, with no deal, with no concessions, with no promises of any kind from the government. He's likely to have his bail revoked, and he'll die in prison. But some of his victims, and some members of the news media, seem to think that he's getting off easy. For example, an attorney representing several victims said that his "clients are outraged by [Madoff's] being able to escape with a guilty plea." (News article here.) Logically, that's nuts: a trial couldn't come out any worse for Madoff than the plea he's planning to enter, and it could come out better. But it seems like the victims want to be heard, want to play a vital role in Madoff's demise, and they seem to think that he's depriving them of that. He isn't, though. Under federal law, victims have "[t]he right to be reasonably heard at any public proceeding in the district court involving release, plea, sentencing, or any [...]
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