Punishment Without Trial, Carissa Byrne Hessick

From a highly accredited criminal law professor at the University of North Carolina, a provocative and timely exploration of how plea bargaining prevents true criminal justice reform and how we can fix it When Americans think of the criminal justice system, the image that pops into their minds is a trial. They envision a standard courtroom scene with a defendant, attorneys, a judge, and most importantly, a jury. It''s a fair assumption.

The right to a trial by jury is enshrined in both the Constitution (Article III, Section 2) and the Bill of Rights (the Sixth Amendment). It''s supposed to be an inalienable right that undergirds our entire justice system. But in Punishment Without Trial: Why Plea Bargaining is a Bad Deal, University of North Carolina law professor Carissa Byrne Hessick illustrates that the popular conception of a jury trial couldn''t be further from reality.

That bedrock constitutional right has all but disappeared thanks to the inexorable march of plea bargaining, which began to take hold du