DOJ to Scale Back Some Thuggery in Plea Bargaining Deals

The Department of Justice (DOJ)
throws every potential criminal complaint at anybody they target
for prosecution in order to intimidate them with the threat of
decades in prison in order to secure plea agreements for lesser
sentences and avoid trial. But it goes further than that. Once DOJ
prosecutors have defendants terrified and ready to sign off on just
a couple of months or years in prison (rather than fighting the
charges), some prosecutors then turn the screws by requiring these
defendants to waive the right to later claim they received bad
advice from their attorneys as part of accepting the deal.
Therefore, these defendants are later hamstrung in their ability to
fight back.

But that’s going to change, as Attorney General Eric Holder
prepares to step down. He’s told his prosecutors to knock it off.
They have to stop demanding defendants waive their rights as part
of a guilty plea. From
The Washington Post:

The Justice Department said Tuesday that it will no longer ask
criminal defendants who plead guilty to waive their right to claim
that their attorney was ineffective and deprived them of their
constitutional right to a competent counsel.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said the new policy, his
latest effort to reform the criminal justice system, is an attempt
to ensure that all individuals who face criminal charges are ably
represented.

“Everyone in this country who faces criminal legal action
deserves the opportunity to make decisions with the assistance of
effective legal counsel,” Holder said in a statement. “Under this
policy, no defendant will have to forego their right to able
representation in the course of pleading guilty to a crime.”

Some U.S. attorney’s offices no longer ask defendants to waive
their right to make future claims about the effectiveness of their
counsel. But before this week, 35 of the Justice Department’s 94
U.S. attorney’s offices still did.

Not only does this order tell prosecutors to stop demanding
these waivers moving forward, it also instructs them to stop
enforcing waivers that have already been signed, according to the
Post.