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An Informational Approach To The Mass Imprisonment Problem, Adam M. Gershowitz
An Informational Approach To The Mass Imprisonment Problem, Adam M. Gershowitz
Adam M. Gershowitz
The United States is plagued by the problem of mass imprisonment, with its prison population having risen by 500 percent in the last three decades. Because the overwhelming majority of criminal cases are resolved through plea bargaining, there is room for prosecutors to reduce mass imprisonment by exercising their wide discretion. At present, prosecutors likely do not give much consideration to the overcrowding of America’s jails and prisons when making their plea bargain offers. However, if prosecutors were regularly advised of such overcrowding they might offer marginally lower sentences across the board. For instance, a prosecutor who typically offers a …
Raise The Proof: A Default Rule For Indigent Defense, Adam M. Gershowitz
Raise The Proof: A Default Rule For Indigent Defense, Adam M. Gershowitz
Adam M. Gershowitz
Almost everyone agrees that indigent defense in America is under-funded, but workable solutions have been hard to come by. For the most part, courts have been unwilling to inject themselves into legislative budget decisions. And when courts have become involved and issued favorable decisions, the benefits have been only temporary because once the pressure of litigation disappears so does a legislature's desire to appropriate more funding. This article proposes that if an indigent defense system is under-funded, the state supreme court should impose a default rule raising the standard of proof to “beyond all doubt” to convict indigent defendants. The …