Prosecutorial Discretion, Guilty Pleas and Criminal Punishment

Session Submission Type: Complete Thematic Panel

Abstract

This thematic session pulls together several interesting papers that examine various issues related to prosecutorial decision-making and guilty plea outcomes. The first paper estimates the effect of guilty pleas on sentencing in New York State. The second paper examines who pleads guilty and who goes to trial, using data from both federal and state courts. The third paper offers an examination of federal crack prosecutions and racial inequality. The fourth paper focuses on the role that evidentuary factors and drug quantities play in prosecution, and the final paper examines geographical variation in the exercise of prosecutorial discretion in death penalty cases.

Sub Unit

• Area VII: Criminal Justice Policy and Practice / 47: Prosecution

Individual Presentations

• Measuring and Explaining Charge Bargaining in New York State - Shi Yan, Arizona State University; Shawn Bushway, University at Albany, SUNY

• Who Pays the Trial Tax? Guilty Pleas and Disparity in Prosecution - Alex Testa, University of Maryland; Brian D. Johnson, University of Maryland

• Discount or Tax? A Real World Conceptualization of Plea Bargaining - Mona Lynch, University of California, Irvine

• Exploring the Role of Evidence in Guilty Pleas: The Relationship between Drug Quantities and Case Processing Outcomes - Jacqueline Lee, University of Maryland

• The Geography of Death: A Socio-Spatial Analysis of Homicide Court Cases - Nick Petersen, University of Miami

Chair

• Brian D. Johnson, University of Maryland