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Plea Bargaining: Critical Issues And Common Practices, Us Department Of Justice, William F. Mcdonald
Plea Bargaining: Critical Issues And Common Practices, Us Department Of Justice, William F. Mcdonald
National Institute of Justice Office of Justice Programs
This analysis of critical issues in the plea bargaining controversy is based on data obtained in six jurisdictions including structured observations of 711 in-court acceptances of guilty pleas; structured interviews with a total of over 200 judges, prosecutors, defense counsel, defendants, and police officers; a plea bargaining decision simulation and quasi-experiment administered to 138 prosecutors and 105 defense attorneys; and a statistical analysis of case file data from 3,397 robbery and burglary cases. The findings suggest that plea bargaining cannot be abolished but can be changed. The policy choices are: how much of a concession should be given to defendants; …
Beyond The Courtroom: A Comparative Analysis Of Misdemeanor Sentencing, Us Department Of Justice, Anthony J. Ragona, John Paul Ryan
Beyond The Courtroom: A Comparative Analysis Of Misdemeanor Sentencing, Us Department Of Justice, Anthony J. Ragona, John Paul Ryan
National Institute of Justice Office of Justice Programs
Misdemeanor courts have been infrequently studied, despite their central importance in law enforcement and social control. More than 9096 of all criminal cases are heard by misdemeanor courts, thereby providing most of the general public with its only view of the criminal process. Our study of four misdemeanor courts--Austin, Texas; Columbus, Ohio; Mankato, Minnesota; and Tacoma, Washington--is an attempt to compare the sentences imposed, the processes leading to sentencing, and the influence of the local political and economic environments surrounding the four courts. An eclectic methodological approach was utilized, including collection of data from random samples of individual defendant case …