The Importance of Interim Decisions to Felony Trial Court Dispositions

Abstract

Interim decisions may be of greater consequence to discretionary justice than final decisions."'This observation by Kenneth Culp Davis constitutes the chief theme of this Article: the extent to which intermediate processes and decisions affect the criminal trial court's final disposition.The study presented here treats criminal court disposition not as a single decision but rather as the result of a number of separate administrative processes.The administrative processes on which the study focuses-jailing defendants before trial, providing defense service to indigent defendants, and plea bargaining---exhibit much variation, probably because they are largely exempt from any sort of review.The study compares the effect of these interim processes on the final disposition to the contribution of such "basic factors" as the defendant's characteristics and the strength of the legal case against him or her.Section II of the Article outlines the data and methods used in the study.Section III provides a brief description of the defendants and the dispositions they received, as well as some material on plea bargaining