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Rate Of False Conviction Of Criminal Defendants Who Are Sentenced To Death, Samuel Gross, Barbara O'Brien, Chen Hu, Edward Kennedy

Edward H. Kennedy

The rate of erroneous conviction of innocent criminal defendants is often described as not merely unknown but unknowable. There is no systematic method to determine the accuracy of a criminal conviction; if there were, these errors would not occur in the first place. As a result, very few false convictions are ever discovered, and those that are discovered are not representative of the group as a whole. In the United States, however, a high proportion of false convictions that do come to light and produce exonerations are concentrated among the tiny minority of cases in which defendants are sentenced to …

Plea Bargaining's Survival: Financial Crimes Plea Bargaining, A Continued Triumph In A Post-Enron World, Lucian E. Dervan

Lucian E Dervan

This article examines the war on financial crimes that began after the collapse of Enron in 2001. Although many believed that the reforms implemented following this scandal led to greater prosecutorial focus on financial crimes and longer prison sentences, an analysis of data from 1995 through 2006 reveals that little has actually changed. The statistics demonstrate that the government's focus on financial crimes has not increased and prison sentences for fraud have remained stagnant. How could this be the case? It is this author's hypothesis that although prosecutors could have chosen to use new statutes and amendments to the United …

Due Process Limits On Sentencing Power: A Critique Of Pennsylvania's Imposition Of A Recidivist Mandatory Sentence Without A Prior Conviction, Leonard N. Sosnov

Leonard N Sosnov

Pennsylvania has an Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition (ARD) program which provides for pretrial diversion for accepted defendants. In exchange for avoiding the risk of conviction, the defendant agrees to supervision or treatment for a specified period of time. Successful completion can lead to dismissal of the charges, while a violation may result in reinstatement of the charges and a criminal trial.

Pennsylvania, like most states, also has recidivist sentencing provisions for repeat offenders. It has chosen to include a prior ARD acceptance in its definition of a prior conviction for purposes of its mandatory sentence recidivist drunk driving laws. The article …