ABSTRACT
Misdemeanors account for the vast majority of criminal cases each year, upwards of 80% of criminal caseloads in some states (Court Statistics Project, 2016). Further, in the United States approximately 97% of criminal cases are resolved through plea bargaining (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2010). Despite the prevalence of misdemeanor pleas in the United States, however, little attention has been paid to the validity of these pleas. The validity of guilty pleas is often concerned with three main factors: (1) knowingness and intelligence of the decision, (2) voluntariness of entering the plea, and (3) factual guilt (Redlich, 2016). The court traditionally evaluates the validity of guilty pleas through oral judicial plea colloquies during plea hearings and written tender-of-plea forms. This chapter begins by reviewing the literature on what we know about the validity of pleading guilty, with a particular focus on how this knowledge can be applied to misdemeanor pleas. The chapter then concludes by identifying potential consequences that could arise if the validity of pleas is not properly evaluated and suggestions for future research directions to address these concerns.
