The Plea Bargaining Blog

As Chair of the American Bar Association Criminal Justice Section from 2018-2019, I had the pleasure of creating three task forces. One of those task forces, which I went on to co-chair, was the Task Force on Plea Bargaining. The Task Force was comprised of representatives from the prosecution, defense, academy, advocacy organizations, and the state and federal systems. After over three years of work, we released our report and recommendations earlier this year (a blog post about the report is available  here ). Included in our report were 14 Principles that we developed to create a fairer, more transparent, and more just criminal system.  Last week in Denver, Colorado at the ABA Annual Meeting, I moved adoption of those 14 Principles in ABA Resolution 502. The Resolution received no opposition and was overwhelmingly adopted by the ABA House of Delegates. With the passage of Resolution 502, the 14 Principles now become the official policy of the ABA. It has been a long road and there i

Earlier today, the American Bar Association Criminal Justice Section Plea Bargaining Task Force released its final report, which includes 14 recommendations for creating a more transparent, fairer and more just system. Formed in 2019 when I served as Chair of the Criminal Justice Section, the task force was created to assess the state of plea bargaining in America and was made up of prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, academics and members of various think tanks and advocacy organizations - including task force members affiliated with The Innocence Project, Southern Poverty Law Center, Council on Criminal Justice, Fair Trials, NACDL, and the Cato Institute.  More information about the task force and a copy of the report are available on the task force website . The 14 Principles from the Report: Principle 1 : A vibrant and active docket of criminal trials and pre- and post-trial litigation is essential to promote transparency, accountability, justice and legitim