Plea bargaining's triumph

"This book traces the evolution of plea bargaining from its beginnings in the early nineteenth century to its present pervasive role. Through the first three-quarters of the nineteenth century, judges showed far less enthusiasm for plea bargaining than did prosecutors. After all, plea bargaining did not assure judges "victory." Moreover, judges did not suffer under the workload prosecutors faced, and they had principled objections to dickering for justice and to sharing sentencing authority with prosecutors. The revolution in tort law in the late nineteenth century, however, brought on a flood of complex civil cases, which persuaded judges of the wisdom of efficient settlement of criminal cases." "In the end, the most vivid testimony to the dominance of plea bargaining is this simple fact: It is difficult to name a single innovation in criminal procedure during the last 150 years that has been incompatible with plea bargaining's progress and survived. With the advent of the United States Sentencing Guidelines in 1987, plea bargaining's triumph in America's federal courts was complete. By handing unprecedented sentencing discretion to prosecutors, the Guidelines have ensured that those who always had the greatest incentive to plea bargain now have the power to make it happen."--BOOK JACKET.