Plea bargains are how criminal cases are resolved today. Jed Rakoff wrote an article a few years ago on why innocent people plead guilty. Some statistics indicate that in 2013 97 % of all federal criminal cases were settled by a plea bargain agreement, In his article Mr. Rakoff discusses the evolution of the plea bargain agreement in resolving criminal cases. today’s post focuses on what happens if a judge does not accept a plea bargain agreement.
Last week, a Williamson County, Tennessee judge he announced he would no longer be accepting plea bargain agreements once the case was set for a jury trial. First, no criminal judge in Tennessee is bound to accept every plea bargain agreement. Under Rule 11 (c)(3)(A) of the Tennessee Rules of Criminal Procedure a trial court has the authority gives the trial court the authority to accept to accept or reject a plea agreement. In the Williamson County example, the court could be forcing the defendant to plea guilty as charged. However, The Court of Criminal Appeals has held there was no abuse in discretion to reject a plea bargain agreement that came in after the plea deadline. See State v. Murphy. Here is a link to review the case.
If the court does reject the plea agreement, the court must comply with Rule 11(c)(5) of the Tennessee Rules of Criminal Procedure in advising the defendant of certain ramifications of the court’s rejection of the plea.
Next week more on plea bargains.