Lesson Subtopics :
Lesson Subtopics The Courtroom: How It Functions
Plea Bargaining
Trial: The Exceptional Case
Appeals
The Courtroom: How It Functions :
The Courtroom: How It Functions Local Legal Culture
The courtroom workgroup
Adversarial or Cooperative?
Plea Bargaining :
Plea Bargaining “Going Rate” and Pleas without bargaining
Charge Bargaining, Sentence Bargaining, and Fact Bargaining
Consequences to Defendant of Pleading Guilty
Judicial Obligations
Plea Bargaining :
Plea Bargaining Legal Issues – Plea Bargaining
Boykin v. Alabama – plea must be voluntary
North Carolina v. Alford – defendant may plead guilty while maintaining innocence
Santobello v. New York – prosecutors must live up to plea bargaining promises
Ricketts v. Adamson – defendants must live up to plea bargaining promises
Bordenkircher v. Hayes – prosecutors may threaten harsher prosecution if defendant refuses to plead
Plea Bargaining :
Plea Bargaining Does plea bargaining really save money over trials?
Hidden/delayed costs
Less community involvement/less public
“Dumber” on crime?
Trial: the Exceptional Case :
Trial: the Exceptional Case Few defendants go to trial and few defendants who go to trial win complete acquittals
Actual questions of facts?
Jury penalty?
Trial: the Exceptional Case :
Trial: the Exceptional Case Burden of proof
Public
Trial process
Goal – Rational consideration of evidence; no surprises
Appeals :
Appeals Usually concerned with answering questions of law, not fact
Appeals must proceed up court hierarchy without skipping steps
State courts have final say on defining meaning of state law
Federal law is supreme when state and federal laws conflict
U.S. Supreme Court’s case selection power is, for all practical purposes, completely discretionary