Guilty plea in sex crime

Just to clarify a little -- a judge does NOT have to go by the guidelines; he/she has to go by the minimums and maximums set by the legislature for each particular crime. The only requirement for the judge to deviate from the guidelines is that he/she state a reason for their deviation. That doesn't sound like an onerous requirement. I don't believe there are any requirements in the law that state the reason for the deviation must be anything. So, a judge could deviate and say give the maximum sentence simple by saying, "I'm deviating from the PA sentencing guidelines because FILL IN THE BLANK." The reason(s) could be anything; "the sky is blue"; "there wasn't enough sugar in my coffee this morning"; or how about, "You're a despicable sex offender."? There is always the possibility of an appeal regardless, but if the law is followed the appeal would not stand. The only reason an appeal would not happen is if the defendant is happy with the sentence. Which brings me to my second point -- You seem to think it is 'prudent' for the judge to follow these guidelines because it will lessen the chance of an appeal, thus saving the court's time (I'm assuming you work for the system). That right there is the main problem with our system. Our system is so out of whack that many times a defendant who is not actually guilty of an offense is better off pleading guilty, and again many times a defendant who is very guilty is let off easily. You say the judge is being prudent, and I say the judge is much more concerned with being expedient than with being prudent. In our judicial system those two words are being blurred when in fact they are very different things; prudence could be simplified as being wise, whereas expedient could equate to easy or convenient. The crux of the problem is that if everyone were to follow the law our courts would grind to an immediate stop. This is directly caused by our society trying to codify, legislate, regulate, control, and decide what is acceptable and unacceptable behaviors in all aspects of our lives. How far is that off from the founders' imagined country of citizens that are free. And, if alive today, what would our founders think of what they had started or what it had become. I can tell you one thing -- they'd be thinking about it from their bunks in some federal penitentiary or Guantanamo Bay in between their sessions of being water boarded till they gave up the names of their co-conspirators, i.e. George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Samuel Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Jay, etc. I can sure as hell tell you one thing with certainty -- They wouldn't have said, "Yeah, this is what we wanted and imagined our society would be." Did I digress from the sentencing of a child molester? Sorry (not really cause the sheep need to stop being sheep).