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Great new (though still dated) examination of the death penalty and plea bargaining

By Douglas A. Berman

Regular readers know that I often note the failure of others to note and consider the potential impact of the death penalty on plea practices.  Excitingly, Kent Scheidegger of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation has now focused attention on this issue through this new working paper, titled "The Death Penalty and Plea Bargaining to Life Sentences."   Here is the paper's abstract: This study examines the disposition of murder cases in a sample of large urban counties to determine if there is a connection between the availability of the death penalty and the number of cases that are disposed of by guilty plea with a life sentence or a long term of years.  Consistently with expectations, significantly more defendants plea bargain to a life or long sentence in states where the death penalty is available...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on February 26, 2009 (boomark / email).