Punishment Without Trial: Why Plea Bargaining is a Bad Deal

by Carissa Byrne Hessick

From a highly accredited criminal law professor at the University of North Carolina, a provocative and timely exploration of how plea bargaining prevents true criminal justice reform and how we can fix it

When Americans think of the criminal justice system, the image that pops into their minds is a trial. They envision a standard courtroom scene with a defendant, attorneys, a judge, and most importantly, a jury. It’s a fair assumption. The right to a trial by jury is enshrined in both the Constitution (Article III, Section 2) and the Bill of Rights (the Sixth Amendment). It’s supposed to be an inalienable right that undergirds our entire justice system.

But in Punishment Without Trial: Why Plea Bargaining is a Bad Deal, University of North Carolina law professor Carissa Byrne Hessick illustrates that the popular conception of a jury trial couldn’t be further from reality. That bedrock constitutional right has all but disappeared thanks to the inexorable march of plea bargaining, which began to take hold during Prohibition and has skyrocketed since 1971, when it was affirmed as constitutional by the Supreme Court. In 2018, more than 97 percent of defendants pleaded guilty. The consequences are dire.

Nearly every aspect of our criminal justice system is designed to encourage defendants—whether they’re innocent or guilty—to take a plea deal. Punishment Without Trial showcases how plea bargaining has undermined justice at every turn and across socioeconomic and racial divides. It forces the hand of lawyers, judges, and defendants, turning our legal system into a ruthlessly efficient mass incarceration machine that is clogging our jails and punishing its citizens because it’s the path of least resistance.

• ISBN10: 1419750291
• ISBN13: 9781419750298
• Publish Date: 28 October 2021
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Abrams Press
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 288
• Language: English

Reviews

[Jeff Sexton]

Anther Critical Book For Those Seeking To Understand The American Justice System. This is yet another critical book for those seeking to understand the full scope of all that is wrong with the American justice system and how we got here, along with Radley Balko's Rise of the Warrior Cop, Michelle Alexander's New Jim Crow (referenced herein, with solid points about where Alexander goes wrong in her presumptions), and Maya Schenwar and Victoria Law's Prison By Any Other Name. Whereas Balko looks at police militarization, Alexander looks at mass incarceration, and Schenwar and Law look at probation and parole, here we look at the critical phase *between* arrest and conviction - the various and severely punitive pre-trial punishments and plea bargains. It is within the scope of this particular problem that Hessick shows just how large and pervasive this particular problem is - to the level that even as many often acknowledge its shortcomings, it is often protected as a means of not "overburdening" the courts! (A tip for "lawmakers": Rescind 10 laws for every 1 you pass. That would go quite far in reducing the burden on the courts. #ijs ;) )

Truly a remarkable and shocking work, and one that every American needs to read. Very much recommended.