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"Longitudinal Guilt: Repeat Offenders, Plea Bargaining, and the Variable Standard of Proof"

By Douglas A. Berman

The title of this post is the title of this very interesting-looking new paper by Professor Russell Covey now available via SSRN.  Here is the abstract: The Article introduces a new concept ? ?longitudinal guilt? ? which invites readers to reconsider basic presuppositions about the way our criminal justice system determines guilt in criminal cases.  In short, the idea is that a variety of features of criminal procedure, most importantly, plea bargaining, conspire to change the primary ?truthfinding mission? of criminal law from one of adjudicating individual historical cases to one of identifying dangerous ?offenders.?  This change of mission is visible in the lower proof standards we apply to repeat criminal offenders. The first section of this Article explains how plea-bargaining and graduated sentencing systems based on criminal history effectively combine together to lower the standard of proof for repeat criminals...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on February 11, 2011 (boomark / email).