Managerial Judging and Judicial Plea Negotiations: Further Evidence

Abstract

This is a companion report to our article, “The Invisible Revolution in Plea Bargaining: Managerial Judging and Judicial Participation in Negotiations,” 95 Texas Law Review 325 (2016), available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=2796296. Based on field interviews with judges and attorneys in ten different states, we documented new procedures in state courts that involve judges routinely in the settlement of criminal cases. We learned of grant-funded problem-solving sessions, multi-case conferences where other lawyers chime in, settlement dockets with retired judges, full-blown felony mediation with defendant and victims, and more.

In this companion report, we make publicly available some additional quotations from our field interviews, adding depth to our description and evaluation of judicial negotiation practices. The additional evidence from our interviews includes further examples and exceptions that we did not publish in the original article. This report ends with an appendix describing our methodology in assembling this interview data.

Keywords: Criminal Procedure, Plea Negotiations, Judicial Behavior