Pleading Innocents: Laboratory Evidence of Plea Bargaining's Innocence Problem

This study explores plea bargaining through an experiment designed to place students in conditions similar to the conditions that defendants face during plea bargaining.  In the experiment, both innocent and guilty participants were accused of a cheating offense. The participants were offered alternative options to settle the matter (including a trial-like option or options more reminiscent of a plea deal). The researchers of this piece hypothesized that the guilty students would be more likely to accept a “plea deal” than the innocent students. The results of the study confirmed the researchers’ hypothesis. However, the study also revealed that the innocent participants were more likely to admit guilt and accept a plea deal than risk taking their case to trial.  The article closes by calling for the innocence problem in plea bargaining to be addressed.

“The current study has built on the previous research by moving the findings into a realm that more closely matches the psychological constructs present when a person is falsely accused of a crime. With confidence, we can now state that the innocent are at risk. ” p. 20