Observers as Participants
Letting the public monitor the criminal justice bureaucracy
Response to The Criminal Court Audience in a Post-Trial World
Vol. 127 No. 8
Author
Stephanos Bibas
Criminal (In)Justice and Democracy in America
Responding to Nicola Lacey, Humanizing the Criminal Justice Machine: Re-Animated Justice or Frankenstein's Monster?, 126 Harv. L. Rev. 1299 (2013)
Response to Humanizing the Criminal Justice Machine: Re-Animated Justice or Frankenstein’s Monster?
Vol. 126 No. 5
Incompetent Plea Bargaining and Extrajudicial Reforms
Vol. 126 No. 1
For many years, plea bargaining has been a gray market. Courts are rarely involved, leaving prosecutors unconstrained by judges or juries. Prosecutor’s plea offers largely set sentences, checked only by defense lawyers. In this laissez-faire bargaining system, defense lawyers, not judges or juries, are the primary guarantors of fair bargains and equal treatment for their clients. But the quality of defense lawyering varies widely. Bargaining can be a shadowy process, influenced not only by the strength of the evidence and the seriousness of the crime but also by irrelevant factors such as counsel’s competence, compensation, and zeal. And because bargaining takes place off the record and is conveyed to clients in confidence, it is not easy to verify that defense counsel have represented their clients zealously and effectively.