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1 - Introduction

The History of the Problem of ‘Cracked Trials’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 December 2022

Kevin Cheng
Affiliation:
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
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Summary

This chapter introduces readers to the history of the problem of ‘cracked trials’, that are trials that do not proceed on the scheduled day, yet does not need rescheduling, as the case has already reached an outcome. The predominant reason for this is the defendant entering a late guilty plea. According to official discourse, cracked trials are attributed to tactical defendants who ‘play the system’ by delaying their guilty pleas. This chapter also introduces readers to the sentence discount as a response to encouraging defendants to plead guilty, and to plead guilty as early as possible. Under the sliding scale of sentence discounts, the early you plead guilty, the greater the sentence discount you receive. The rest of the chapter outlines the rest of the book.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Timing of Guilty Pleas
Lessons from Common Law Jurisdictions
, pp. 1 - 21
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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  • Introduction
  • Kevin Cheng, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
  • Book: The Timing of Guilty Pleas
  • Online publication: 22 December 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009158626.004
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To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Introduction
  • Kevin Cheng, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
  • Book: The Timing of Guilty Pleas
  • Online publication: 22 December 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009158626.004
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction
  • Kevin Cheng, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
  • Book: The Timing of Guilty Pleas
  • Online publication: 22 December 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009158626.004
Available formats
×