Plea Validity in Circuit Court: Judicial Colloquies in Misdemeanor vs. Felony Charges

A judicial plea colloquy is one of the primary safeguards in the plea process to ensure the validity of a plea. However, despite the plea colloquy’s importance, there is no uniform standard that circuit courts must adhere to in evaluating whether a plea has been entered knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily. As a result, there is significant variation in the colloquy process between felony plea hearings and misdemeanor plea hearings, specifically with the language used by judges and the length of the hearings. This study observed plea colloquies in a federal circuit court to compare how the elements of plea validity (knowingness, intelligence, voluntariness, and factual basis of guilt) are evaluated in felony-to-felony plea hearings versus felony-to-misdemeanor hearings. Consistent with the researchers’ hypotheses, judges treat the two hearings quite differently. The length of plea hearings for defendants pleading to felony charges averaged over fourteen minutes, whereas hearings for defendants pleading down to misdemeanor charges averaged less than eight minutes. Judges were also less likely to directly ask defendants pleading guilty to misdemeanor charges about the knowingness, intelligence, voluntariness, and factual basis of guilt of their plea. These observations raise significant concerns regarding the validity of felony-to-misdemeanor pleas and emphasize the need for a uniform standard for conducting judicial plea colloquies in federal courts.

“[T]he plea hearings of these two types of cases are treated quite differently, despite being handled in the same court. Elements of validity were much less likely to be directly and indirectly addressed in cases where the defendant was pleading to misdemeanor-only plea hearings compared to felony plea hearings. Misdemeanor-only plea hearings were significantly shorter than felony hearings (nearly half the length), resulting in significantly fewer questions about each of the elements of plea validity and fewer questions overall.” p. 281