Guilty pleas dominate criminal case disposition overwhelmingly

Evidence

We know that prosecutorial discretion is vast. Prosecutors decide what cases to prosecute, determine and change charges, dismiss cases and drop specific charges at multiple points, adopt diversion programs and divert qualified defendants, negotiate pleas, and make pretrial release and sentencing recommendations. In both state and federal systems, the prosecutorial power is especially unlimited and unchecked when it comes to plea bargaining. Guilty pleas have become the dominant mechanism of case disposition. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, for every 100 felony defendants processed in urban courts, only 3 are convicted at trial (Cohen & Kyckelhahn, 2010). In the federal system, only 2 percent of criminal defendants go to trial, and in the past two decades, the number of federal defendants opting for a trial has fallen by 60 percent (Gramlich, 2019). — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 547

Categorization

• SHARE: For a crim-law-inclined friend: ‘only 3 of every 100 felony defendants in urban courts are convicted at trial’ — the rest plead.
• XREF: connects to: Severity of potential penalty drives felony defendants toward trials or plea bargains — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1664; Over 94 percent of felony convictions result from guilty pleas, not trials — Lawrence M. Friedman and Grant M. Hayden, American Law: An Introduction, 844; Plea bargains have pushed jury trials into a small corner of the criminal process — Lawrence M. Friedman and Grant M. Hayden, American Law: An Introduction, 845