This past Saturday morning in a Helena High math classroom, Jefferson High junior Kale Strozewski faced off against a Butte High junior in the second round of their Lincoln-Douglas debate on plea bargaining.
This seemed like high school debate at its most intense: competitors exchanging carefully constructed insights and rapid-fire rebuttals in seeking to outmaneuver their foe. Strozewski argued in the affirmative for plea bargaining, a process where defendants agree to plead guilty in exchange for reduced charges or lighter sentences, before his opponent countered.
“Isn’t it possible that they are just taking the easy way out?” argued the Butte junior. “Not actually getting justice for the victim?”
