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Alaska's Ban on Plea Bargaining

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

Michael L. Rubinstein  and
Teresa J. White
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Abstract

Plea bargaining was banned by Alaska's Attorney General in August of 1975. The ban extended to all crimes, and forbade both charge and sentence negotiations. Its effects, evaluated by the Alaska Judicial Council in a two-year study, were to increase some sentences, increase trials modestly, and—surprisingly—increase the productivity of the criminal justice system. Explicit plea bargaining appears to have been substantially reduced, without any noticeable commensurate increase in implicit bargaining. The Alaska experience strongly suggests the need to reexamine contemporary thinking about plea bargaining.

Type
Reform Efforts
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 13 , Issue 2 , Winter 1979 , pp. 367 - 383
Copyright
Copyright © 1979 Law and Society Association.

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Footnotes

This project was supported by Grant 76-NI-10-0001 awarded to the Alaska Judicial Council by the National Institute of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice, Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, U.S. Department of Justice, under the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, as amended. The Judicial Council is a constitutionally created branch of state government. It is Alaska's “Missouri Plan” judicial nominating commission with the added constitutional mandate to “conduct studies for improvement of the administration of iustice and make reports and recommendations to the supreme court and to the legislature. . . .” Points of view or opinions stated in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice or the Alaska Judicial Council.

We would like to thank Professors Stevens H. Clarke and Gary Koch of the University of North Carolina for their help in analyzing the data presented here. We also thank our coders, interviewers, and other staff, as well as the numerous people throughout Alaska who have contributed in many ways to our evaluation.

References

ALASKA JUDICIAL COUNCIL (1977) Alaska Felony Sentencing Patterns. Anchorage: Alaska Judicial Council.Google Scholar
FRANKEL, Marvin (1973) Criminal Sentences: Law without Order. New York; Hill and Wang.CrossRefGoogle Scholar