Exploring the Role of Evidence in Guilty Pleas: The Relationship between Drug Quantities and Case Processing Outcomes

• In Event: Prosecutorial Discretion, Guilty Pleas and Criminal Punishment

Abstract

Recent work has indicated that evidence plays an important role in case processing (Albonetti, 1989; Spears and Spohn, 1996; Kutateladze et al, 2015), particularly in early stages. Unfortunately, due to practical constraints, few large-scale sentencing datasets include such measures. This paper will present findings from a new data collection in a large, urban county in Texas and will investigate the relationship between evidence available to courtroom actors and case processing. Using measures that were hand-coded from police reports and court documents, this paper will investigate whether the stated drug quantity at arrest has an impact on charge at indictment, charge at judicial confession, and final charge of conviction. This study presents an interesting addition to the field of criminology as it provides for a more detailed examination of the relationship between evidence and both case processing and final case outcomes.

Author

• Jacqueline Lee, University of Maryland