Jacqueline G. Lee, an assistant professor of criminal justice in the School of Public Service, co-authored an article for the Nov. 17 edition of The Journal of Qualitative Criminal Justice and Criminology.
“Sometimes I’m Just Wearing the Prosecutor Down”: An Exploratory Analysis of Criminal Defense Attorneys in Plea Negotiations and Client Counseling uses a sample of courtroom practitioners to examine defense attorney bargaining and client counseling tactics.
Results demonstrate that defense attorneys use a variety of strategies for negotiation such as delay tactics and sharing humanizing information about their clients with the prosecutor. While there are likely expectations for typical punishments, Lee’s research also points to the ability of individual defense attorneys to alter the trajectory of a criminal case through negotiation and client counseling.