Guilty Plea Hearings in Juvenile and Criminal Court

A plea hearing is arguably the most significant part of the plea bargaining process because it is where a defendant ensures that their plea is voluntary, knowing, intelligent, and has a factual basis. Plea hearings are open in criminal courts, but in juvenile courts, they are almost always closed. Thus, there is little information available as to what occurs during juvenile plea hearings—specifically, how long they last and what information judges utilize to determine the validity of a juvenile’s plea. This study observes and analyzes plea hearings in two juvenile courts and one criminal court for the purpose of better understanding (1) what exactly happens during plea hearings to ensure the validity of a plea and (2) how a juvenile plea hearing compares to a criminal court plea hearing. Observations revealed that, despite the paramount importance of plea hearings, all the hearings were extremely short—averaging six to eight minutes in juvenile court and thirteen minutes in criminal court. These numbers are especially concerning for juvenile defendants, as they already have inadequate legal comprehension but are done with a plea hearing in less than ten minutes. Juvenile courts also had up to twenty more people in the court room during plea hearings than in criminal courts, and very few judges demonstrated a positive affect to the juvenile defendants. Strikingly, in juvenile courts, judges very rarely reviewed evidence supporting pleas’ factual bases, and of the forty indicators of voluntariness, knowingness, and intelligence, twenty-six were either never asked or only asked of one juvenile. This study indicates a need to standardize plea validity methods to guarantee that all defendants are given the same amount of information at plea hearings.

“We found plea hearings to be formal, minutes-long events in which elaborated defendant participation and positive expressions from the judge were infrequent. In our two juvenile courts, up to an additional 20 people were present during the plea hearing, and the evidence supporting the factual basis of the guilty plea was very rarely reviewed, which stood in sharp contrast to the criminal court practices we observed.” p. 39