How do You Plead, and Why? How Attorney Experience and Defendant Background Affect Plea Bargaining
Michael Conklin, How Do You Plead and Why? How Attorney Experience and Defendant Background Affect Plea Bargaining, 17 OHIO ST. J. CRIM. L. 409 (2020).
14 Pages Posted: 12 Jun 2020 Last revised: 13 Oct 2022
Date Written: 2020
Abstract
Various studies have been conducted to determine how defendants respond to plea offers and how actual innocence colors their decision. This essay describes the results of a first-of-its-kind study designed to analyze how legal counsel’s level of experience affects willingness to accept a plea offer. Furthermore, the variables of participant race, gender, and political affiliation—which are largely ignored in plea bargain research—are analyzed to provide a more robust understanding of defendants’ decision making. Potential explanations for demographic disparities in plea bargain responses, such as level of trust in the legal system, are also evaluated.
Keywords: Plea bargain, Alford plea, Criminal justice reform, Mass incarceration, Trial penalty, Race Innocence effect, False confessions,
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