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Sentencing; prosecutorial breach; breach of contract; contractual rights; plea bargain; guilty plea; right to cure; ineffectiveness of counsel; reasonable expectations; deferred remedy; fairness; collusion
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Plea Bargains, Prosecutorial Breach, And The Curious Right To Cure, Michael D. Cicchini
Plea Bargains, Prosecutorial Breach, And The Curious Right To Cure, Michael D. Cicchini
Brooklyn Law Review
When the prosecutor breaches a plea bargain—e.g., by recommending prison instead of the agreed-upon probation—the defendant is entitled to a remedy: either sentencing in front of a different judge or plea withdrawal. However, if defense counsel objects to the breach, the prosecutor may halfheartedly change the recommendation to probation. Most courts have held that to be an effective “cure”—even when the judge then sentences the defendant to prison, as the prosecutor originally recommended. The right to cure, which was intended for commercial sales contracts, fails miserably in the plea-bargain context. In the above example, the attempted cure is too late, …