COVID-19 exacerbates existing system factors that disadvantage defendants: Findings from a national survey of defense attorneys.

OBJECTIVE: COVID-19 has impacted many facets of daily life and the legal system is no exception. Legal scholars have hypothesized that effects pandemic may contribute to more coercive plea bargains (Cannon, 2020; Johnson, 2020). In this study, we explored defense attorneys' perceptions whether how process changed during pandemic. HYPOTHESES: This study was exploratory, made a priori hypotheses. METHOD: We surveyed 93 practicing United States attorneys about their affected court procedures, plea-bargaining prosecutorial behavior, defendant decision-making. conducted semistructured follow-up interviews with 13 help contextualize survey responses. RESULTS: The majority (81%, n = 76) reported had pandemic, they experienced difficulty contacting communicating clients, especially those who were detained. Two thirds (n 42) said thought prosecutors offering lenient deals. One third detained clients 23) having plead guilty due related conditions might not under normal circumstances. CONCLUSIONS: ability access advise believed leverage in negotiations shifted further individual prosecutors. At same time, deals, painting complex picture negotiation (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).