He Takes Some of My Time; I Take Some of His

An Analysis of Judicial Sentencing Patterns in Jury Cases

Bibliographic Data

ID4085490
AuthorsThomas M Uhlman, N Darlene Walker, N Walker (0000-0003-3865-4045)
Year1980
Volume14
Issue2
Pages323-341
Publication date1980-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLaw & Society Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0023-9216 • E-ISSN: 1540-5893
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/3053316
OpenAlexW2326978835
LanguageEN
Citations received27
References cited4

The jury has been widely credited with contributing to the best elements of the American judicial system. Utilizing computerized case histories of 29,000 felony defendants in an urban trial court, this article examines an important aspect of the jury process-judicial sentencing following jury trials. The data show that the sentencing cost of pursuing constitutionally guaranteed jury trial rights is high: jury defendants are punished with substantially greater harshness than are plea and bench convictees in essentially similar criminal cases. Regardless of sentencing philosophy, virtually every judge who sentenced jury, bench, and plea defendants sentenced jury defendants far more harshly and sent them to jail more frequently. Stiffer penalties for jury defendants appears to be the operational, though unstated, judicial policy, exercised out of the apparent administrative interest in reducing the number of lengthy jury trials

Criminology · Jury · Political science · Sociology · Jury Decision Making Processes · Law · Law, Economics, and Judicial Systems · Legal and Constitutional Studies

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