A PLEA IS NO BARGAIN: THE IMPACT OF CASE DISPOSITION ON SENTENCING

The vast majority of defendants in this country who are arrested & enter the criminal justice system never have a day in court. Most often their cases end in guilty pleas, settled before the adversary process has begun. A nearly universal assumption among scholars & court personnel is that the defendant reaps a sentencing benefit in exchange for a guilty plea. This assumption is tested by examining the relationship between sentencing outcome & type of case disposition in felony convictions in a major trial court (number of cases = 29,295). The principal finding is that sentences in plea cases are virtually indistinguishable from those handed down following bench trials. Controls for charge severity, crime type, defendant age, sex, & race do not significantly alter the primary disposition-sentence relationship. Sentencing bargains at the bench are as profitable as pleas & are greatly enhanced by the 40% chance of being found innocent by a judge. If pleas are rooted in ignorance of their minimal benefits, then as sophisticated information about sentencing practices receives wider attention, the importance of the plea in disposing of criminal cases will either decline or prosecutors & judges will be compelled to offer better bargains. 3 Tables. AA.