An Emerging Crime Trend of Misdemeanors and Implementation of a Plea-Bargaining System in China: The Role of Defense Lawyers in Negotiating Voluntary and Intelligent Plea Deals

• In Event: Cross-Cultural Studies on Crime and Criminal Justice

Abstract

Building upon the Chinese literature and U.S. research, the present study assesses the degree of defense lawyers’ participation in negotiating plea deals of misdemeanor cases and the effects of their participation on cases outcomes in a Chinese plea-bargaining system. The data used for the present study come from surveys of defense lawyers and prosecutors in a city of China. The data from both samples indicate that defense lawyers had relatively high participation in the negotiation of plea deals for misdemeanor cases. The data from the sample of defense lawyers show that the defense lawyers’ participation has significant effects on which judicial stages that defendants were more likely to plead guilty, that is, defendants were more likely to plead guilty in both investigation and prosecution stages with the defense lawyers’ participation. In contrast, defendants were much more likely to plead guilty in the investigation stage with the defense lawyers’ participation as the data from the sample of prosecutors indicate. Finally, data from the sample of defense lawyers reveal that with defense lawyers’ participation in negotiation, plea deals of misdemeanor cases were more likely to be adjudicated in the summary and expedited procedures of trial proceedings. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Authors

• Lening Zhang, Saint Francis University

• Yong Gao, Beijing International Studies University

• Ming Hu, Zhejiang University