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"Plea Bargaining in the Shadow of Terror"

By Douglas A. Berman

The title of this post is the partial title of this timely new piece on SSRN by Lucian Dervan. The full title is "Plea Bargaining in the Shadow of Terror: Plea Bargaining During the War on Terrorism and the Dual Chambers of the Plea Bargaining Machine," and here is the abstract: While obtaining the exact number of defendants who have pleaded guilty to terrorism or terrorism related charges since September 11, 2001 is impossible due to the federal government?s refusal to release such information, it is estimated that there have been several hundred convictions of which over 80% resulted from a plea of guilty.  While this plea rate for terrorism cases is certainly lower than the plea rate for other federal offenses, which on average has remained above 95% for almost every year since 1999, a plea rate in excess of 80% is remarkably high given the psyche of those who would engage in the acts being prosecuted...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on February 16, 2010 (boomark / email).