Private Counsels and Public Defenders: A Look at Weak Cases, Prior Records and Leniency in Plea Bargaining

• NCJ Number: 120130
• Journal: Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 17 Issue: 4 Dated: (1989) Pages: 253-263
• Author(s): D J Champion
• Date Published: 1989
• Length: 11 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS. This is a revised version of an article presented at the Academy of Criminal Justice Science Meetings, St. Louis, MO., April, 1987

Annotation

A survey of 166 city and county prosecutors from Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia was conducted, including thirty follow-up interviews. For the years 1981-1984, these prosecutors obtained 18,493 convictions. Of these, 15,522 or eighty-four percent were obtained through plea bargaining, whereas 2,971 (16 percent) resulted from trials.

Abstract

Plea bargaining conditions were found to be in part a function of the defendant's socioeconomic status, prior record, crime seriousness, strength of government evidence, whether the defendant had a private attorney or used a public defender, and the reputation of the defense attorney. Ninety-three percent of the cases dropped involved private defense attorneys, whereas only seven percent of the cases dropped involved public defenders. Of the total number of convictions secured through plea bargaining, forty-one percent were of defendants using private attorney, whereas fifty-nine percent involved public defenders. 3 tables, 37 references. (Author abstract)