Law Commons^™

Plea Bargains: Justice For The Wealthy And Fear For The Innocent, Emily Stauffer

Brigham Young University Prelaw Review

The Supreme Court has consistently recognized the hardships of the poor in the criminal justice system and has set a precedent that if a person cannot afford access to any level of the criminal justice system, the state must remove that financial barrier. Prosecutorial tactics in the plea-bargaining process coerce the poor into waiving their right to trial. The unequal access to trial between the poor and non-poor violates the Fourteenth Amendment, which requires that states remove any barrier that restricts the poor from the criminal justice system. The Court has left the states to decide which solutions will work …

Addressing Racial Inequities In The Criminal Justice System Through A Reconstruction Sentencing Approach, Jelani Jefferson Exum

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

Justice reform is having a moment. Across the nation and in the federal government, legislation has passed “to reduce the scale of incarceration and the impact of collateral consequences of a felony conviction.” While some of these reforms were the result of fiscal concerns over mass incarceration, others were in response to the criminal justice reckoning brought on by events of 2020 and intensified calls for racial justice. In the summer of 2020 media attention on the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor sparked nationwide and global protests and accompanying antiracism pledges by individuals and institutions. This …