A recent study by Sherod Thaxton (pic­tured) of the University of Chicago Law School exam­ined the effect of the threat of the death penal­ty on plea bar­gain­ing. Using sta­tis­ti­cal analy­sis of charg­ing and sen­tenc­ing data in Georgia between 1993 and 2000, Thaxton found that the pos­si­bil­i­ty of a death sen­tence increased the like­li­hood of a plea bar­gain: ​“deter­ring two out of every ten death noticed defen­dants from pur­su­ing a tri­al.” However, the low­er num­ber of tri­als does not off­set the high costs of the death penal­ty, he found. ​“The empir­i­cal find­ings in this arti­cle sug­gest that the threat of the death penal­ty has a sub­stan­tial causal effect on the like­li­hood that a defen­dant accepts a plea agree­ment. Nevertheless, the mag­ni­tude of the effect is clear­ly insuf­fi­cient to off­set the sub­stan­tial admin­is­tra­tive and finan­cial costs aris­ing from the occa­sion­al cap­i­tal defen­dant tak­ing her chances at tri­al.” In many cas­es, the author said, sig­nif­i­cant pre-tri­al costs are incurred even before a plea agree­ment is reached. The study, Leveraging Death, will be pub­lished in a forth­com­ing edi­tion of the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology. 

(S. Thaxton, ​“Leveraging Death,” Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, forth­com­ing (2012); DPIC post­ed, Sept. 13, 2012). Sherod Thaxton is the Earl B. Dickerson Fellow and Lecturer in Law at the University of Chicago Law School. See Studies and Costs.

Citation Guide