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Should plea agreements be available to the public?

By Douglas A. Berman

I just noticed via SSRN this new student note by David Snyder in the Fordham Urban Law Journal.  The notes is titled "Nonparty Remote Electronic Access to Plea Agreements in the Second Circuit," and here is the abstract: The advent of electronic access to case files gives rise to security concerns previously unrealized in the era of paper records.  The emergence of a "cottage industry" of websites that republishes court filings and plea agreements online for the purposes of witness intimidation, retaliation, and harassment poses a grave risk of harm to cooperating witnesses and defendants.  The benefits associated with the remote electronic availability and dissemination of judicial documents may thus come at a considerable cost. This Note describes the options that district courts within the Second Circuit could implement sua sponte to mitigate these concerns...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on December 05, 2008 (boomark / email).