Overview

Though originally an interloper in a system of justice mediated by courtroom battles, plea bargaining now dominates American criminal justice. 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""; judges did not suffer under the workload that prosecutors faced; and judges had principled objections to dickering for justice and to sharing sentencing authority with prosecutors. The revolution in tort law, however, brought on a flood of complex civil cases, which persuaded judges of the wisdom of efficient settlement of criminal cases. Having secured the patronage of both prosecutors and judges, plea bargaining quickly grew to be the dominant institution of American criminal procedure. Indeed, 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.

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9780804744591

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Reviews

Filling a stunning gap in the literature, Plea Bargaining's Triumph is one of the five most important books on issues of U.S. criminal justice in the last fifty years. Despite its historical perspective, it has immense importance for modern criminal justice policy, and may be the basis for major law reforms, as the analyses are highly relevant to modern sentencing legislation and practice. The book is also highly readable and dramatic, for Fisher brings alive not only old laws and courts, but the character and characters of the law. Prosecutors, defense lawyers, sentencing judges, policymakers, and legal scholars should all read this book. - Marc L. Miller, Emory Law School

""Filling a stunning gap in the literature, Plea Bargaining's Triumph is one of the five most important books on issues of U.S. criminal justice in the last fifty years. Despite its historical perspective, it has immense importance for modern criminal justice policy, and may be the basis for major law reforms, as the analyses are highly relevant to modern sentencing legislation and practice. The book is also highly readable and dramatic, for Fisher brings alive not only old laws and courts, but the character and characters of the law. Prosecutors, defense lawyers, sentencing judges, policymakers, and legal scholars should all read this book."" - Marc L. Miller, Emory Law School

Author Information

George Fisher is Professor of Law at the Stanford Law School. He is the co-editor, with Lawrence M. Friedman, of The Crime Conundrum: Essays on Criminal Justice.

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