Doctoral Dissertation Research: Disclosure in Plea Bargaining

博士论文研究：辩诉交易中的披露摘要：美国绝大多数刑事案件都是通过辩诉交易来处理的。然而，最高法院认为，检察官不需要在程序的认罪阶段向被告披露弹劾证据。该项目将采用试验性方法来检验最高法院的假设，即不需要向被告披露弹劾证据。更具体地说，这些实验将有助于确定辩诉交易期间披露对辩护律师决策的影响是否随着证据类型的不同而不同，无论是弹劾证据还是无罪证据。该项目的主要目标是评估认罪前披露不同类型证据的影响。为此，该项目将在全国范围内招募执业辩护律师的样本，并向他们提交虚构的案件卷宗。通过实验操纵参与者在模拟辩诉交易场景中获得不同类型和数量的弹劾和无罪证据，该项目将系统地测试弹劾和无罪证据在影响辩护律师辩诉相关决定方面是否发挥不同的作用。该项目采用了审判理论框架的影子，该框架假设辩护律师与认罪相关的建议主要基于他们认为的在审判中获胜的几率。由于认罪前披露的证据可能会影响辩护律师对无罪释放机会的评估，因此获得无罪和弹劾证据可能会对辩护律师在审判中准确估计自己的胜算起到作用。因此，该项目对第六修正案权利的应用具有影响。该裁决反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Title: Doctoral Dissertation Research: Disclosure in Plea BargainingAbstract: The vast majority of criminal cases in the United States are disposed of through plea bargaining. Yet, the Supreme Court has held that prosecutors are not required to disclose impeachment evidence to defendants at the plea stage of the process. This project will employ an experimental approach to test the Supreme Court's assumption that disclosure of impeachment evidence is not necessary to defendants. More particularly, the experiments will help determine whether the effect of disclosure on defense attorney decision making during plea bargaining differs as a function of evidence type, whether impeachment vs. exculpatory evidence. The primary goal of this project is to assess the impact of pre-plea disclosure of different types of evidence. To do so, the project will recruit a nationwide sample of practicing defense attorneys and present them with fictional case files. By experimentally manipulating participants' access to different types and amounts of impeachment and exculpatory evidence in mock plea-bargaining scenarios, the project will systematically test whether impeachment and exculpatory evidence function differently with respect to their effect on defense attorneys' plea-related decisions. The project employs the shadow of the trial theoretical framework, which posits that defense attorneys' plea-related recommendations are primarily based on their perceived odds of winning at trial. As pre-plea disclosure of evidence may affect defense attorneys' assessments of the chances of acquittal, access to exculpatory and impeachment evidence could play a role in a defense attorney's ability to accurate gauge their odds at trial. As a result, this project has implications for the application of Sixth Amendment rights.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.