Guilty plea hearings in juvenile and criminal court.

Abstract

Objective: In guilty plea hearings, judges must determine whether defendants' plea decisions were made knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily. Little is known, however, about how plea hearings unfold, especially in juvenile court, where hearings are generally closed to the public. In this study, we had the unique opportunity to systematically observe plea hearings in juvenile and criminal court. Hypotheses: We predicted that plea hearings would be brief and that defendant participation, especially among juveniles, would be minimal. We also explored how often judges addressed the plea validity components of knowingness, intelligence, and voluntariness and whether addressing these components differed by the type of court (juvenile, criminal), pretrial custody status, and pled-to charge severity. Method: Trained coders in California (n = 104, juvenile court) and Virginia (n = 140, juvenile court; n = 593, criminal court) systematically observed more than 800 guilty plea hearings. Coders reliably documented hearing length, whether the defendant was in pretrial custody, whether the evidence was reviewed, details on defendant participation, and judicial attention to plea validity. Results: On average, juvenile plea hearings lasted about 7 min and criminal plea hearings lasted 13 min. Prosecutors rarely reviewed evidence against the defendants in the juvenile courts, and in one juvenile court, judges paid virtually no attention to plea validity. In the other two courts, certain waived rights (e.g., to trial, to silence) were reviewed consistently. Depending on the court, hearing length and plea validity elements addressed varied by defendants' prehearing custody status and the pled-to charge severity. Conclusions: These findings provide novel insight into how components necessary for plea admissibility-knowingness, voluntariness, and intelligence-are discussed with defendants and, in doing so, raise concerns about the degree to which plea validity is actively assessed in plea hearings. Plea hearings are formal, minutes-long events in which defendant engagement is low. Public Significance StatementBy law, judges must assess whether defendants make valid guilty plea decisions (i.e., knowing, intelligent, and voluntary) at plea hearings, a crucial task given that almost all convictions in juvenile and criminal court occur through guilty pleas. Our work reveals that there is a need to standardize current methods of plea validity assessment to ensure that all defendants, regardless of age, court, and pled-to charge severity, receive the same amount of information and general content at their plea hearings.

The effects of confessions on misconduct and guilty pleas in exonerations: Implications for discovery policies

“…In trial cases, there is a more substantial record from which to engage in and identify misconduct than in plea cases. Generally, the only formal plea record is the plea hearing, which lasts mere minutes (Redlich, Domagalski, et al., 2022).…”

An offer you cannot refuse: Plea offer size affects innocent but not guilty defendants' perceptions of voluntariness.

“…Although it could be argued that the discrepancy between validity and voluntariness was merely an artifact of the dichotomous versus continuous nature of the scales, it could also be argued that it reflects the nature of the plea colloquy as “boilerplate formalities” (Appleman, 2010; Redlich et al, 2022; Turner, 2006). Such formulaic procedures likely do not meaningfully capture the experiences of defendants and do little to ensure that their decisions are being made consistent with constitutional requirements (Bibas, 2011; Dezember et al, 2022; Sanborn, 1992).…”

Identifying Patterns Across the Six Canonical Factors Underlying Wrongful Convictions

“…100 They rarely require more than 15 minutes, and defendants are often expected to provide obvious and "perfunctory" responses to typically-scripted questions from a judge to indicate that the plea is being made knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily. 101 At these hearings, evidence is rarely reviewed (particularly in juvenile court), and when evidence is submitted, it often involves little more than the unsubstantiated police report. 102 Given the efficiency and certainty that guilty pleas offer, prosecutors will often allow defendants to negotiate for lowered charges, even reducing felony-level charges to misdemeanors.…”