The ABA ’s 2023 Plea Bargain Task Force Report

Clark NeilyPlea bargaining is criminal “justice” on the cheap. Think of an ultra‐​budget airline that eliminates co‐​pilots, foregoes maintenance, carries no fuel reserves, and omits preflight safety checks in favor of quick turnaround times. Efficient? Yes. Cheaper? Certainly. But no sane person would choose to fly that airl ine because of its flagrant disregard for what a century of experience with commercial aviation has taught us about the key role that extensive safety protocols play in avoiding disaster.Another complex process that requires multiple safety protocols to avoid disaster is the adjudication of criminal charges. And, like commercial aviation, we have learned from generations of sometimes painful experience about the hazards of sacrificing process for efficiency. Except that, unlike commercial aviation, when it comes to criminal adjudication we have chosen to largely disregard those lessons in the heedless pursuit of efficiency. If that sounds like hyperbole, note that last year 98.3 percent of federal criminal convictions (and around 95 percent in the states) came from guilty pleas rather than constitutionally prescribed jury trials. Consider also that out of more than 2,000 documented exonerations in this country,18 percent were the product of false guilty pleas —that is, an innocent person coerced by prosecutors into pleading guilty to a crime they did not in fact commit. Efficient? Certainly. Cheap? Very much so. And utterly i...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs