Serious offenders plea bargain less and still receive lengthy sentences.

Evidence

Defendants charged with serious offenses, who face the prospect of serving time in prison, are more likely to take their chances at trial and less likely to plea bargain. And prosecutors, aware of community sentiment, are less willing to cut “sweet” deals with such offenders. When plea bargaining does occur in serious cases, offenders still receive lengthy sentences. The studies of sentencing in Alaska confirm this: The sentences serious offenders received when plea bargaining was legal were just as severe as those they received after it was abolished. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1812

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the course’s equality/fairness inquiry: caseload pressure rather than leniency drives plea bargaining, undercutting the claim that it coddles violent offenders. — connects to: Severe sentencing fails to reduce crime yet politicians escalate it anyway — Philip Pettit, Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and…, 888; Plea bargaining shifts sentencing control from legislatures to courtroom actors’ discretion — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1809; Private sentencing reasoning skews who ends up in correctional institutions. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 1111 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Plea bargaining shifts sentencing control from legislatures to courtroom actors’ discretion #expands (0.85) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1809
• Private sentencing reasoning skews who ends up in correctional institutions. #complicates (0.80) — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 1111
• Severe sentencing fails to reduce crime yet politicians escalate it anyway #complicates (0.75) — Philip Pettit, Republicanism, 888
• Severity of potential penalty drives felony defendants toward trials or plea bargains #complicates (0.75) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1664