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‘Fictional Pleas’ and ‘Hidden Departures’: Failure to Collect Data on Binding Federal Plea Bargains Hinders Researchers
Loaded on Feb. 15, 2025
by David Reutter
published in Criminal Legal News
March, 2025, page 20
Filed under:
Databases,
Disclosure of Records,
Public Records Act,
Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure,
Plea Agreements/Guilty Pleas.
Location:
United States of America.
by David M. Reutter
Are federal courts participating in a legal fiction during sentencing proceedings to maintain a peculiar but potentially necessary mechanism to resolve criminal cases without a jury? That question and the effects thereof are the subject of Plea Agreements and Suspending Disbelief (“Essay”). In his Essay, Sam ...
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More from this issue:
- Community Supervision: America’s Hidden Wellspring to Mass Incarceration, by Douglas Ankney, James Mills
- Hawai’i Supreme Court Reverses Murder Conviction for Prosecutorial Misconduct Based on Prosecution’s Improper Statements During Closing Arguments, by Sam Rutherford
- D.C. Circuit Holds Compelling Suspect to Unlock Cellphone With Thumbprint Is ‘Testimonial’ Act and Violates Fifth Amendment Privilege Against Self-Incrimination, by Anthony Accurso
- A Gift America Can’t Return: The Police State Is America’s New Crime Boss, by Nisha Whitehead, John W. Whitehead
- ‘Fictional Pleas’ and ‘Hidden Departures’: Failure to Collect Data on Binding Federal Plea Bargains Hinders Researchers, by David Reutter
- Third Circuit Grants Habeas Relief to Prisoner on Confrontation Clause and Ineffective Assistance Claims Based on Trial Court Reading Entire Criminal Information Into the Record of Co-Conspirator Who Pleaded Guilty, by Sam Rutherford
- Examining Pro-Prosecution Bias in the Judiciary: Unconscious Biases of a Prosecutorial Background, by Casey Bastian
- Colorado Supreme Court Holds Defendant Was in ‘Custody’ for Miranda Purposes Because She Had Hands Bagged and Zip Tied, Commanded Not to Remove Them, and Questioned Alone in Interrogation Room With Door Closed, by Anthony Accurso
- California Court of Appeal: Evidence Insufficient to Show Robbery Victim Moved ‘Substantial Distance’ to Support Simple Kidnapping Conviction and Amendments to § 186.22 Require Vacatur of Gang Enhancements, by Douglas Ankney
- Fourth Circuit Decision on Claim of Retaliation for Exercising First And Sixth Amendment Rights Highlights Police Corruption, by Sam Rutherford
- Reining in Police Monitoring of Social Media, by Michael Thompson
- Study: DNA Transfer in Social Settings, by Michael Thompson
- California Court of Appeal Announces Defendants May Obtain Brady Evidence From Police Officers’ Personnel Files in Advance of § 1172.6 Hearing Requesting Vacatur of Conviction and Resentencing for Certain Types of Murder Convictions, by Sam Rutherford
- First Circuit: Two-Level Enhancement Under § 3B1.1(c) for Leadership or Managerial Role Vacated Because Government Failed to Prove Defendant’s Order Was Actually ‘Obeyed’ by Fellow Criminal Participant, by David Reutter
- Massachusetts Supreme Court Vacates Threat-Based Conviction on First Amendment Grounds Because Jury Instructions Failed to Include Mens Rea Element Mandated by Counterman for ‘True-Threat’ Conviction, by Sam Rutherford
- First Circuit Holds No Emergency-Aid Exception to Warrant Requirement Where Police Have Information That Subject Is Already Deceased, by Anthony Accurso
- Police Departments Are Now Using AI to Write Reports, by Anthony Accurso
- California Court of Appeal Announces Equal Protection Entitles Youth Offenders Convicted of Special Circumstances Murder Predicated on Robbery or Burglary to Franklin and Parole Hearings Under Cal. Penal Code § 3051, by Sam Rutherford
- Law Enforcement Obscures Use of Facial Recognition Technology, by Sam Rutherford
- Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Holds Witness Wearing Surgical Mask During Pandemic Is Denial of Sixth Amendment Right to Face-to-Face Confrontation and No General Exception to This Right for Pandemic or ‘Other Global Events’ Such as Wars and Natural, by David Reutter
- News in Brief
- Study Reveals Best DNA Recovery Spots on Drug Baggies, by James Mills
More from David Reutter:
- $2.4 Million Settlement Reached After Elderly Pretrial Detainee Strangled by Cellmate in San Antonio Jail, June 1, 2025
- Almost $4.4 Million for Illinois Prisoner’s Failure to Protect Claim, June 1, 2025
- Washington Appellate Court: Personal Restraint Petition Proper Vehicle to Challenge Community Supervision, June 1, 2025
- $2.8 Million Settlement in National NUMI Debit Release Card Class Action, June 1, 2025
- $6 Million Settlement in Illinois Detainee’s Gruesome Untreated Heroin Withdrawal Death, June 1, 2025
- Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Announces Order of Deferred Disposition Not a ‘Sentence’ Under Article 44.01(b)—Which Authorizes State to Appeal Illegal Sentence—Resolving Split Among State Courts of Appeals, April 15, 2025
- Fifth Circuit: Sentence Enhancement for Maintaining Drug Premises Not Satisfied Solely by Defendant’s Single, Conclusory Statement That He ‘Maintained’ Premises When Record Shows Mere ‘Use’ of Premises, April 15, 2025
- Illinois Pretrial Incarceration Becomes Less Random A Year After Elimination of Cash Bail, April 1, 2025
- Philadelphia Agrees to $9.1 Million Settlement for Wrongful Murder Conviction, Feb. 15, 2025
- ‘Fictional Pleas’ and ‘Hidden Departures’: Failure to Collect Data on Binding Federal Plea Bargains Hinders Researchers, Feb. 15, 2025
More from these topics:
- New Mexico Watchdog Group Sues for Video Allegedly Showing Jailers Killing Detainee, June 1, 2025. Medical Neglect/Malpractice, Public Records Act.
- Connecticut Supreme Court Announces Teague’s ‘Watershed’ Rule Exception to Nonretroactivity of New Constitutional Rule of Criminal Procedure on Collateral Review Has ‘Continued Vitality’ in Connecticut, Adoption of Third Exception to Teague’s Nonretroacti, April 15, 2025. Retroactivity, Criminal Procedure, Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, Eyewitness Identification.
- A Black Box, a Guilty Plea, and an Uncertain Truth, April 15, 2025. DNA Testing/Samples, Computer Searches, Forensic Sciences, Plea Agreements/Guilty Pleas.
- Federal Government Circumventing Fourth Amendment by Buying Data From Data Brokers, April 15, 2025. Databases, Searches - Cellphones/Computers/Internet, Immigration Law/Offenses, Fourth Amendment.
- California Police Misused State Databases Over 7,000 Times in 2023, March 15, 2025. Police Misconduct, Databases.
- Shakedown in New Mexico: Decades-Long Police Corruption Scandal Rocks Albuquerque’s DWI Unit, March 15, 2025. Police Misconduct, Bribery, Plea Agreements/Guilty Pleas.
- Former Vermont Sheriff Takes Plea Deal in Sexual Assault Case, March 1, 2025. Staff-Prisoner Assault, Police/Govt Misconduct, Plea Agreements/Guilty Pleas.
- Over 100,000 Criminal Records Sealed Under Colorado’s “Clean Slate Act”, March 1, 2025. Disclosure of Records, Public Records, Criminal Records.
- California Court of Appeal Announces Defendants May Obtain Brady Evidence From Police Officers’ Personnel Files in Advance of § 1172.6 Hearing Requesting Vacatur of Conviction and Resentencing for Certain Types of Murder Convictions, Feb. 15, 2025. Disclosure of Records, Police, Brady Violations, Murder/Felony Murder, Resentencing, Prior Conviction/Sentence/Incarceration, Evidence - Admissibility.
- Third Circuit Grants Habeas Relief to Prisoner on Confrontation Clause and Ineffective Assistance Claims Based on Trial Court Reading Entire Criminal Information Into the Record of Co-Conspirator Who Pleaded Guilty, Feb. 15, 2025. Habeas Corpus, Ineffective Assistance of Counsel, Exculpatory No Doctrine, Confrontation Clause/Rights, Witnesses - Prior Statements/Testimony, Plea Agreements/Guilty Pleas.