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Public defending offices must set maximum caseloads and give lawyers the ability to decline appointments beyond the set caseload limits to ensure quality representation. Governments must also delegate more funding to the hiring of more public defenders to ensure that every defendant in need of an attorney receives proper representation. In addition, minimum sentencing must be abolished to ensure fair sentencing at trial. These improvements to the court systems will create a trial advantage, enabling defendants to receive a fair trial and proper sentencing and making plea bargaining unnecessary.

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The Paradox of the Innocent Pleading Guilty

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The Paradox of the Innocent Pleading Guilty

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This paper, "The Innocent Defendant's Dilemma", reports that one study discovered that over half of innocent defendants plead guilty in plea bargains. Almost 97% of defendants in the federal court system plead guilty, most as the result of plea bargains. That innocent defendants would plead guilty seems to be a paradox, however many defendants do not want to risk a larger sentence because of weak defense. The innocent plead guilty because of perceived benefit, even though the result may be decades in prison away from their families.

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The Constitution guarantees the right to a fair trial, but trials are not fair if sentencing is biased to the prosecutor's advantage. For the majority of defendants, those who cannot afford a private lawyer, the trial disadvantage makes accepting a plea bargain and pleading guilty much more likely, regardless of actual guilt. The Bureau of Justice Assistance reports that an estimated 90% - 95% of all state and federal cases are resolved through plea bargains, not at trial by a judge or jury.

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Plea bargaining is a symptom of a larger issue, that of underfunded and understaffed public defender offices. Public defenders resort to plea bargains because the overworked attorneys do not possess enough time to give every defendant's case proper attention, and innocent defendants suffer as a result. Defendants accept the bargains to avoid the possibility of a larger sentence when a strong defense could have lessened their sentence or proved their innocence.

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The U.S. Department of Justice’s National Advisory Commission (NAC) on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals sets the recommended maximum caseload for a public defender's office at 150 felony and 400 misdemeanor cases per attorney each year, and public defenders are recommended to decline appointments beyond this limit. The following caseload statistics from Bureau of Justice Statistics reports exclude cases pending from previous years and cases other than misdemeanors and felonies.

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Public defenders are overwhelmed with the volume of cases the court systems must process each year. The Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that in 2007, 6 million cases were handled by a mere 964 public defender offices distributed among 49 states and the District of Columbia. (Maine has not established a public defender office.)

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Introduction to the Pros and Cons of the Plea Bargaining Process

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Introduction to the Pros and Cons of the Plea Bargaining Process

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When defendants turn down plea bargains in favor of a trial, many such as Reid receive worse sentences than those offered in the plea bargain. On one hand, plea bargains offer a lesser sentence for the defendant, ensure a conviction for the prosecutor, and expedite the judicial process for the court system. On the other hand, plea bargains result in a guilty plea regardless of a defendant's actual guilt, and cases often do not receive the attention the defendants deserve.

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Twenty-six years ago, sixteen-year-old Giovanni Reid watched as an older friend robbed, shot, and killed a man. Reid rejected a plea bargain of twenty-five years in jail to plead innocent, as Reid claims to have been "in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people". A jury convicted the teen of second-degree murder, which required a lifetime sentence without parole under Pennsylvania law. Now that a U.S. Supreme Court ruling has declared that automatic life sentences for juveniles without parole are unconstitutional, this abc27 news story covers Pennsylvania's struggles to hold new sentencing hearings for hundreds of prisoners eligible for a chance at release.

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Human Rights Watch has published this report on plea bargaining, in which it calls for plea bargain reform and suggests solutions to the trial penalty. The organization reports that the average sentence for federal drug defendants who accept plea bargains is five years and four months, but the average sentence of defendants who go to trial is sixteen years. The organization argues against mandatory minimum sentencing to enable judges to assign sentences that fit each case.

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In this research paper, University of Pennsylvania Law Professor David S. Abrams argues that taking a case to court provides the defendant an advantage when a defendant predicts high chances at success. The conclusion is based in conditional and unconditional expected values and behavioral economic theory.

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This legal information website provides more in-depth explanations of the use of plea bargains in various scenarios. The compilation of webpages also includes the pros and cons of plea bargaining and plea bargaining from the perspective of each party involved in a trial.

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Public figures often negotiate lesser sentences, mostly because these defendants hire strong private defense lawyers. This NY Times article reports the result of an NFL player's child abuse plea bargain, where a charge of felony child-abuse was reduced to a single misdemeanor.

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This American Bar Association webpage provides a general overview of the plea bargain process and the usual motivations behind plea bargains.

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This WSJ article argues that taking a trial to court imposes a disadvantage on the defendant because of the likelihood for a defendant to receive a worse sentence from going to trial instead of accepting a plea bargain agreement.

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This video investigates how prosecutors exploit legislation to increase the likelihood of a defendant accepting a plea bargain.

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Unfair plea bargaining by federal prosecutors

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Mr. Kousouros discusses federal prosecutor's practice of overcharging those accused of a crime in order to extract guilty pleas.

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This video explains the basic theory behind plea bargaining.

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What is a plea agreement? This video introduces the controversial topic of plea agreements, also known as plea bargains, where defendants enter into agreements to plead guilty. Plea agreements are extremely common but also highly controversial. Among other things, there is a concern that too many innocent people agree to plead guilty to crimes that they did not commit.