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Monday, September 26, 2011
Law - "Sentencing Shift Gives New Leverage to Prosecutors"
That is the headline to this story by Richard A. Oppel in today's NY Times. A subhead is "Tough sentences help prosecutors push for plea bargains." That may sound familar to those who have followed the arguments against reform of Indiana's sentencing laws.
From the very long NYT story:
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — After decades of new laws to toughen sentencing for criminals, prosecutors have gained greater leverage to extract guilty pleas from defendants and reduce the number of cases that go to trial, often by using the threat of more serious charges with mandatory sentences or other harsher penalties.Some experts say the process has become coercive in many state and federal jurisdictions, forcing defendants to weigh their options based on the relative risks of facing a judge and jury rather than simple matters of guilt or innocence. In effect, prosecutors are giving defendants more reasons to avoid having their day in court. * * *
One crucial, if unheralded, effect of this shift is now coming into sharper view, according to academics who study the issue. Growing prosecutorial power is a significant reason that the percentage of felony cases that go to trial has dropped sharply in many places.
Plea bargains have been common for more than a century, but lately they have begun to put the trial system out of business in some courtrooms. By one count, fewer than one in 40 felony cases now make it to trial, according to data from nine states that have published such records since the 1970s, when the ratio was about one in 12. The decline has been even steeper in federal district courts.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on September 26, 2011 09:49 AM
Posted to General Law Related