Trial Distortion and the End of Innocence in Federal Criminal Justice

Abstract

INTRODUCTION 80 I. GUILTY PLEAS THAT RESOLVE CASES BUT NOT QUESTIONS 87 A. Federal Guilty Plea Growth Spurts 88 B. Plea Bargain Theories, Looking High and Low 91 1. Micro-Level Intentions 92 2. Macro-Level Social Purposes 97 II. ACQUITTALS AS A WARNING 100 A. Federal Acquittal Rates and the Guilty Plea Connection 101 B. Acquittals and the Other Displaced Outcomes 103 C. The Mid-Level Trial Distortion Theory 106 1. Trial Distortion and Trial Penalties 107 2. Are Lost Acquittals and Dismissals Trial Distortions? 112 3. The Accuracy Hypothesis 114 III. WHAT MADE FEDERAL ACQUITTALS DISAPPEAR? 116 A. Case Volume 117 B. Legal Complexity and Defense Counsel in the 1950s and 1960s ........122 C. Crime of the Decade 125 D. Sentence Severity and Trial Penalties in the 1990s 129 E. Prosecutor Power as the Leading Acquittal Culprit 134 IV. LEGAL ENVIRONMENTS HOSTILE TO INNOCENCE 137 A. Environmental Audits 139 B. Trials and Tribulations by the Numbers 146 C. The Sentencing Law Nexus 150 CONCLUSION 154 APPENDIX 156