Why prosecutors love plea bargains.
by Richard Barbuto
Statistics. I bet you thought it was going to be something else. Well, it could be, but statistics is one of the reasons that prosecutors love plea bargains.
District Attorneys, Commonwealth Attorneys or whatever they are called in your jurisdiction are politicians. Senators, representatives and the like run on their voting records, among other things. Prosecutors, when running for re-election run on conviction rates. Persons running for prosecutorial offices and trying to unseat the incumbent want to tell the voters how bad the incumbent's conviction rate is. So in this election season I thought it might be fun to explore "conviction rates."
In "the dirty little secret about plea bargains" which appeared here about a week and a half ago, I pointed out that any plea-bargain to less than the highest charge needed permission of the prosecutor and the approval of the court. Plea-bargaining keeps the court system moving and can also make a prosecutor look good as well.
When a person gets arrested there is a piece of paper which sets forth the charges against him. Some lawyers call this piece of paper an accusatory instrument, indictment or the like. I prefer a piece of paper. That's what it is after all. To prove that point some lawyers rip them up in front of the jury. Some lawyers like to use 25 words when 5 will do. But I digress.
Let's assume the person is arrested for a felony and is ultimately indicted. Let's further assume that he is indicted for murder, manslaughter, robbery and criminal possession of a weapon. The murder charge is called the top count because it carries the heaviest penalty of all the charges and will normally be count one of the indictment.
If the defendant pleads guilty to any of the charges in the indictment, it counts as a conviction for the prosecutor. If all defendants took pleas, the conviction rate would be 100%. Prosecutors would love this. If the defendant has the unmitigated gall to go to trial and is convicted of anything it is a conviction for the prosecution. Still not too bad for the prosecutor. So if 90 of 1oo cases plea out and the DA wins 5 out of the remaining 10 she has a 95% conviction rate A 95% conviction rate will make a prosecutor positively giddy.
Lets go back to our murder case and assume the prosecutor really, really doesn't want a trial. She can then go to the defendant's lawyer and offer a plea that simply cannot be refused. For example, if defendant goes to trial and loses he may get a life sentence. If he gets a plea of say 2 years, he really has to consider the plea even if innocent. If you are in his shoes do you want to roll the dice? So another plea bargain is struck and somewhere during the plea someone will mention the interests of justice and other phrases having to do with the majesty of the law and everyone will leave the court house thinking they did their job. Well, except for the defendant.
Let's take this a step further. In the above indictment let's assume there were four people charged. If they all go to trial and are convicted of anything not only will it show up as 4 convictions but will be recorded as 4 trials. Think of it. The individual who tried the case can legitimately say he tried 4 murder cases and got 4 convictions. If you are a prosecutor what could be better?
Anyway, the next time someone says that her office has a 95% conviction rate ask them to break it down into top count pleas and pleas versus trial conviction rates. I promise they will not do it unless you ask.
District Attorneys, Commonwealth Attorneys or whatever they are called in your jurisdiction are politicians. Senators, representatives and the like run on their voting records, among other things. Prosecutors, when running for re-election run on conviction rates. Persons running for prosecutorial offices and trying to unseat the incumbent want to tell the voters how bad the incumbent's conviction rate is. So in this election season I thought it might be fun to explore "conviction rates."
In "the dirty little secret about plea bargains" which appeared here about a week and a half ago, I pointed out that any plea-bargain to less than the highest charge needed permission of the prosecutor and the approval of the court. Plea-bargaining keeps the court system moving and can also make a prosecutor look good as well.
When a person gets arrested there is a piece of paper which sets forth the charges against him. Some lawyers call this piece of paper an accusatory instrument, indictment or the like. I prefer a piece of paper. That's what it is after all. To prove that point some lawyers rip them up in front of the jury. Some lawyers like to use 25 words when 5 will do. But I digress.
Let's assume the person is arrested for a felony and is ultimately indicted. Let's further assume that he is indicted for murder, manslaughter, robbery and criminal possession of a weapon. The murder charge is called the top count because it carries the heaviest penalty of all the charges and will normally be count one of the indictment.
If the defendant pleads guilty to any of the charges in the indictment, it counts as a conviction for the prosecutor. If all defendants took pleas, the conviction rate would be 100%. Prosecutors would love this. If the defendant has the unmitigated gall to go to trial and is convicted of anything it is a conviction for the prosecution. Still not too bad for the prosecutor. So if 90 of 1oo cases plea out and the DA wins 5 out of the remaining 10 she has a 95% conviction rate A 95% conviction rate will make a prosecutor positively giddy.
Lets go back to our murder case and assume the prosecutor really, really doesn't want a trial. She can then go to the defendant's lawyer and offer a plea that simply cannot be refused. For example, if defendant goes to trial and loses he may get a life sentence. If he gets a plea of say 2 years, he really has to consider the plea even if innocent. If you are in his shoes do you want to roll the dice? So another plea bargain is struck and somewhere during the plea someone will mention the interests of justice and other phrases having to do with the majesty of the law and everyone will leave the court house thinking they did their job. Well, except for the defendant.
Let's take this a step further. In the above indictment let's assume there were four people charged. If they all go to trial and are convicted of anything not only will it show up as 4 convictions but will be recorded as 4 trials. Think of it. The individual who tried the case can legitimately say he tried 4 murder cases and got 4 convictions. If you are a prosecutor what could be better?
Anyway, the next time someone says that her office has a 95% conviction rate ask them to break it down into top count pleas and pleas versus trial conviction rates. I promise they will not do it unless you ask.
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