Has the pandemic increased guilty pleas? – New

People in the United States have a constitutional right to a jury trial. Yet over 95% of criminal convictions result from guilty pleas rather than jury verdicts.

The bulk of these guilty pleas come from plea negotiations. This happens when prosecutors offer reduced sentences to defendants. In return, they waive their right to a trial.

Even those who are innocent can plead guilty. Factors that encourage guilty pleas, such as the promise of immediate release from prison, can be just as appealing to innocent defendants as they are to the guilty.

The effect of the pandemic on advocacy agreements

COVID-19 has impacted the criminal justice system in two main ways:

• There have been epidemics in prisons and prisons due to close physical contact.
• Defendants have had to wait even longer for their day in court because courts have closed or restricted their operations.

Has the added risk of COVID exposure in prison made defendants, whether guilty or not, more likely to plead guilty to avoid remand?

A team of researchers that included Missouri State University Dr David Zimmerman worked to find out through an experimental study.

Using a computer simulation, the researchers interviewed more than 700 adults through an online platform called Prolific Academic. Dr. Miko Wilford of the University of Massachusetts Lowell developed the program with funding from the National Science Foundation.

“The participants created an avatar and were told that their character had been charged with theft. They are stuck in jail because of a previous conviction, ”explained Zimmerman, associate professor of psychology. “They also got a plea offer – to plead guilty and get probation. “

The researchers randomly assigned the participants to be innocent or guilty of stealing a pair of sunglasses. In addition, half of them received reports that COVID-19 was spreading in the prison and court dates were pushed back due to the pandemic – the other half did not.

What the results showed

“We found that these variables had an impact on the outcome of the guilty plea,” Zimmerman said. “Guilty people were more likely to plead guilty, which is typical. But COVID news – that kind of brutal manipulation of the pandemic – has also influenced innocent people to plead guilty. “

The data further revealed that innocent participants viewed the COVID threat as a more important factor in making them plead guilty than guilty participants.

He co-wrote an article summarizing this study, which was recently published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied. The article highlights existing problems in the system that COVID has made worse.

“In particular, pre-trial detention can force people – guilty or innocent – to plead guilty,” Zimmerman said.

He notes that to their credit, prosecutors have made efforts to reduce pre-trial detention and otherwise be more lenient towards non-violent offenders during the pandemic.

“Unfortunately, this does not change the fundamental imbalance that is present in advocacy negotiations,” Zimmerman said. “It’s largely up to the prosecutor if he or she uses the additional leverage against defendants created by the pandemic.”