Plea bargaining operates as a rough informal system of precedent

Evidence

Once the prosecutor and defense attorney have resolved the facts of the case— that is, the nature of the crime and the character of the defendant—+their … In other words, because both prosecutor and defense attorney share the assumption that like cases should be treated alike, plea bargains occur in arough’system of precedent in which the outcomes of past negotiations provide standards for the resolution of current ones. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1751

Categorization

• XREF: Links to common-law precedent logic from ch3 — plea bargaining mirrors precedent in the shadow of the court. — connects to: Plea bargaining dominated American courts by the early 1900s, not recently — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1767; Active trial judging extends into negotiating pleas and settlements between parties — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 568; Case negotiations occur in the shadow of the law set by trial outcomes (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Prosecutors, not judges, dominate U.S. criminal outcomes via plea bargaining #corroborates (0.85)
• Guilty pleas, not trials, now dominate criminal case disposition #exemplifies (0.78)
• Slow legal process lets contested practices settle into ordinary acceptance #expands (0.72) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 440