Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 1 of 1
Full-Text Articles in Law
Unshackling Plea Bargaining From Racial Bias, Elayne E. Greenberg
Unshackling Plea Bargaining From Racial Bias, Elayne E. Greenberg
Faculty Publications
“History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, [but] if faced with courage, need not be lived again.”
Dr. Maya Angelou
When an African American male defendant tries to plea bargain an equitable justice outcome, he finds that the deep-rooted racial bias that casts African American men as dangerous, criminal and animalistic, compromises his justice rights. Plea bargaining has become the preferred process used to secure convictions for upwards of 97 percent of cases because of its efficiency. This efficiency, however, comes at a cost. The structure and process of plea bargaining makes it more likely that the historical racial …