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PBI Issues Supreme Court Retrospective Report Covering 1970 Through 2019

Article by Plea Bargaining Institute
Tue 23 Jul 2024
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The Plea Bargaining Institute issued a report today regarding U.S. Supreme Court plea bargaining cases from 1970 through 2019.

The new report from the Plea Bargaining Institute contains summaries of dozens of significant U.S. Supreme Court plea bargaining cases from 1970 until 2019. The report also contains observations regarding these cases, focussing on the history of plea bargaining in the pre-Brady era, the 1970 Brady decision, and the period following Brady.

The report begins by pointing out the importance of understanding the pre-Brady historical period.

“It is not surprising that many people believe plea bargaining has a deep common law history, particularly given how dominant plea bargaining is in today’s criminal justice system. But the actual history of plea bargaining reveals that this form of adjudication is a relatively modern American invention that sprang from the need to create a more efficient criminal system in the face of the over-criminalization of the early 20th century. Prior to the 20th century, in fact, courts interpreting the common law were wholly averse to the concept of bargained justice. As will be discussed below, it was not until 1970 that the U.S. Supreme Court explicitly approved of plea bargaining in the Brady v. United States decision. This decision, therefore, is the first opinion in our U.S. Supreme Court summaries collection. While Brady represents a watershed moment in the development of plea bargaining law, a brief review of the historical origins and development of plea bargaining prior to 1970 is important in understanding how we arrived at the Brady decision.”

After walking the reader through the historical rise of plea bargaining, the report examines the Brady decision more closely. This includes analysis of the Court’s discussion of the possibility of false pleas of guilty by the innocent and the Court’s imposition of important limitations on the incentives to plead guilty. The report then concludes by considering the limited attempts made in the decades after Brady to proscribe appropriate limitations for plea bargaining.

In concluding its review of the decisions, the report states:

“As we reflect on the history of plea bargaining from its early offshoots in various locations in the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries to its rise to dominance beginning in the period of over-criminalization at the turn of the 20th century, we must recognize that throughout much of that history plea bargaining operated in the shadows. Even after the Supreme Court brought bargained justice into the light in 1970, the Court’s work in regulating the plea bargaining machine and enforcing the limitations established in Brady were sparse. As courts, including the Supreme Court, begin to recognize the dominant role of plea bargaining today and embark on a more exacting examination of plea bargaining, there is an important role for the Plea Bargaining Institute. By disseminating information about case law and academic research in searchable and accessible formats, the forthcoming work of the courts in the plea bargaining space will be better informed, better directed, and more effective. This report serves as a starting place for that work.”

The entire report may be found on the “Reports” page of the PBI website. The summaries contained in the report are also available in an online searchable format on the PBI website’s “Summaries” page.