Criminal,
9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
Jun. 26, 2019
9th Circuit finds it is acceptable to use leniency towards a defendant’s child as a bargaining chip in plea bargaining
A 9th Circuit panel held that such pleas are involuntary if the government lacked probable cause to prosecute the third party at the time of the defendant’s guilty plea. In Yong’s case, the court determined that after reviewing the totality of the circumstances,
Thea Johnson
Associate Professor
University of Maine School of Law
Thea teaches criminal law, criminal procedure and evidence. Her scholarship focuses on plea bargaining.
A panel (Judges Marsha Berzon, Michelle Friedland and Kathleen Cardone) of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently decided the case of U.S. v. Seng Cheng Yong, 2019 DJDAR 4941 (June 7, 2019). In it, the court considered whether a guilty plea is involuntary if it is conditioned on leniency to a third party -- in this case, the son of the defendant. The court, joining sev...
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