The Volokh Conspiracy
[Eugene Volokh, June 26, 2006 at 5:46am] Trackbacks
Acquittal-Happy Federal Judges?

A few months ago I read an article by Prof. Andy Leipold called Why are Federal Judges so Acquittal Prone?, and found it very interesting, so I invited Andy to join us for a week to post about his findings.

Andy is an accomplished criminal law scholar, and Professor and Co-Director of the Program in Criminal Law and Procedure at the University of Illinois College of Law. I hope you find his observations as intriguing and eye-opening as I did.

Related Posts (on one page):

  1. Federal Bench Trial Acquittal / Jury Trial Acquittal Study Hits the Media:
  2. Judge vs. Jury Acquittals; Thanks
  3. Judge vs. Jury Acquittals, Some Conclusions
  4. Judge vs. Jury Acquittals, More Results
  5. Judge vs. Jury Acquittals, Day 2
  6. Acquittal Prone Federal Judges
  7. Acquittal-Happy Federal Judges?
Steve Lubet (mail):
Prof. Leipold's abstract begins with this observation:

"Federal criminal defendants almost always prefer a jury trial to a bench trial, but it is unclear why. Statistically, federal judges are significantly more likely to acquit than a jury is - over a recent 14 year period, for example, the jury trial conviction rate was 84%, while the bench conviction rate was a mere 55%."

At least some of this phenomenon is due to the strategic decisions of defense lawyers.

There is a saying among public defenders that their job is to win bench trials and lose jury trials. That is, they take their best cases to bench trials, because they trust judges to recognize reasonable doubt. They opt for jury trials in hopeless cases, because lightening might strike.
6.26.2006 8:03am
Cornellian (mail):
I wonder how much of that is due to the attitude, so common among criminals, that they're smarter than most other people. Maybe they think they can pull the wool over the eyes of a jury more easily than with a judge.
6.26.2006 9:28am
Medis:
As an aside, my impression is that this is a trend in other similar countries as well (meaning in other comparable countries, there also tends to be a greater acquittal among judges than among lay jurors).
6.26.2006 9:43am
OrinKerr:
I enjoyed the article a great deal, as well, and I look forward to Prof. Leipold posts.
6.26.2006 9:55am
anonyomousss (mail):
havent had time to read the article, but why is the question "why are federal judges so acquittal happy" and not "why are juries so eager to convict"?
6.26.2006 10:05am
Public_Defender (mail):
I asked some trial lawyers, and one came back quickly with the reason the professor described on p. 182--lawyers often do bench trials when the prosecutor feels the need to take a weak case to trial for political reason.

To put it less charitably, it's a way for cowardly prosecutors to dump responsibility on the judge.
6.26.2006 1:47pm

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