I can understand why it was felt best by both the defendant and the prosecutor in the Joel Price child pornography case to settle by a plea bargain rather than a trial. The outcome was probably similar, and a lot of time and money was saved by the State, and a great deal of grief for the guilty.
An unintended consequence, however, is that we are left wondering what details a trial would have brought to light. Was Joel Price himself a victim of sexual child abuse? What had NTM done about it? How did Joel Price's addiction to child porn escape notice? A good defense attorney, to say nothing of a determined prosecutor, would have shed a lot of light in places where it rarely shines.
A good chance to break the cycle of abuse was missed.
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