Achievement

Trainee Monica Deza has nearly completed a study of whether "Three Strikes" laws that require defendants with three felony convictions to serve a life sentence, reduce the likelihood that someone who has been indicted of felony pleads. While the intent of these laws is to reduce crime, a potentially important side-effect is that they increase the incentives for defendants to fight felony convictions, lengthening the processing time for criminal cases and imposing a costly burden on the legal system. The study finds that Three Strikes Laws decrease the probability of pleading guilty by 4.87 percentage points, increasing the probability of defendants going to trial among strikeable offenders facing the threat of being convicted for an additional strike. In California, Three Strikes decreases the probability of pleading guilty by 5.29 percentage points, creating the unintended consequence of crowding out our courts.