Samuel Luckey, et al v. Rachel Mitchell, 22-16556, No. 30 (9th Cir. Feb. 2, 2023) (2024)

Case: 22-16556, 02/02/2023, ID: 12645388, DktEntry: 30, Page 1 of 21
`
`No. 22-16556
`
`UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
`FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
`__________________________________________________________________
`
`SAMUEL LUCKEY, ET AL.,
`Plaintiffs-Appellants,
`
`v.
`
`RACHEL H. MITCHELL, IN HER OFFICIAL CAPACITY AS COUNTY ATTORNEY FOR
`MARICOPA COUNTY,
`
`Defendant-Appellee.
`__________________________________________________________________
`
`On Appeal from the United States District Court
`for the District of Arizona, No. 2:21-cv-01168-GMS
`District Judge G. Murray Snow
`______________________________________________________________
`
`
`
`BRIEF OF THE CATO INSTITUTE AS AMICUS CURIAE IN SUPPORT
`OF PLAINTIFFS-APPELLANTS
`__________________________________________________________________
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`Clark M. Neily III
`Jay R. Schweikert
` Counsel of Record
`CATO INSTITUTE
`1000 Mass. Ave., N.W.
`Washington, DC 20001
`(202) 216-1461
`jschweikert@cato.org
`
`Counsel for the Cato Institute
`
`
`
`
`
`
`

`

`Case: 22-16556, 02/02/2023, ID: 12645388, DktEntry: 30, Page 2 of 21
`
`RULE 26.1 CORPORATE DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
`
`
`
` The Cato Institute is a nonprofit entity operating under § 501(c)(3) of the
`
`Internal Revenue Code. Amicus is not a subsidiary or affiliate of any publicly owned
`
`corporation and does not issue shares of stock. No publicly held corporation has a
`
`direct financial interest in the outcome of this litigation due to amicus’s participation.
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`i
`
`

`

`Case: 22-16556, 02/02/2023, ID: 12645388, DktEntry: 30, Page 3 of 21
`
`TABLE OF CONTENTS
`
`TABLE OF AUTHORITIES ................................................................................... iii
`
`INTEREST OF AMICUS CURIAE ............................................................................ 1
`
`SUMMARY OF THE ARGUMENT ........................................................................ 2
`
`ARGUMENT ............................................................................................................. 4
`
`I. DEPRIVING DEFENDANTS OF THEIR RIGHT TO A PRELIMINARY
`HEARING SEVERELY UNDERMINES THE RIGHT TO A JURY TRIAL
`ITSELF. .............................................................................................................. 4
`
`II. PROTECTING THE RIGHT TO A PRELIMINARY HEARING IS
`ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT IN LIGHT OF THE VANISHINGLY SMALL
`ROLE THAT JURY TRIALS PLAY IN OUR CRIMINAL JUSTICE
`SYSTEM. ........................................................................................................... 9
`
`CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................14
`
`CERTIFICATE OF COMPLIANCE .......................................................................15
`
`CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE ................................................................................16
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`ii
`
`

`

`Case: 22-16556, 02/02/2023, ID: 12645388, DktEntry: 30, Page 4 of 21
`
`Cases
`
`TABLE OF AUTHORITIES
`
`Barker v. Wingo, 407 U.S. 514 (1972) ....................................................................12
`
`Blakely v. Washington, 542 U.S. 296 (2004) ............................................................. 7
`
`Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963) ..............................................................2, 13
`
`Duncan v. Louisiana, 391 U.S. 145 (1968) ............................................................... 5
`
`Faretta v. California, 422 U.S. 806 (1975) ............................................................... 9
`
`Florida v. Nixon, 543 U.S. 175 (2004) ...................................................................... 5
`
`Jones v. United States, 526 U.S. 227 (1999) ............................................................. 6
`
`Mansfield v. Williamson Cnty., 30 F.4th 276 (5th Cir. 2022) .................................13
`
`North Carolina v. Alford, 400 U.S. 25 (1970) ........................................................... 7
`
`Powers v. Ohio, 499 U.S. 400 (1991) ........................................................................ 7
`
`Thompson v. Utah, 170 U.S. 343 (1898) ................................................................... 6
`
`United States v. Haymond, 139. S. Ct. 2369 (2019) .................................................. 3
`
`United States v. Kaczynski, 239 F.3d 1108 (9th Cir. 2001) ....................................... 7
`
`Constitutional Provisions
`
`U.S. CONST. art. III, § 2 .............................................................................................. 9
`
`Statutes
`
`Ariz. R. Crim. P. 15.8(a) ..........................................................................................13
`
`Other Authorities
`
`AKHIL REED AMAR, THE BILL OF RIGHTS: CREATION AND RECONSTRUCTION (1998)
` ................................................................................................................................ 7
`
`ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE, DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA (Phillips Bradley ed. 1945) .... 7
`
`Clark Neily, A Distant Mirror: American-Style Plea Bargaining through the Eyes of
`a Foreign Tribunal, 27 GEO. MASON L. REV. 719 (2020) ...................................11
`
`CLAY CONRAD, JURY NULLIFICATION: THE EVOLUTION OF A DOCTRINE (2d ed. 2014)
` ................................................................................................................................ 5
`
`George Fisher, Plea Bargaining’s Triumph, 109 YALE L.J. 857 (2000) ................... 9
`
`J. STORY, COMMENTARIES ON THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES § 1779 ... 6
`
`Jed S. Rakoff, Why Innocent People Plead Guilty, N.Y. REV. (Nov. 20, 2014) .....10
`
`iii
`
`

`

`Case: 22-16556, 02/02/2023, ID: 12645388, DktEntry: 30, Page 5 of 21
`
`Lauryn P. Gouldin, Disentangling Flight Risk from Dangerousness, 2016 BYU L.
`REV. 837 (2016) ...................................................................................................12
`
`Lysander Spooner, An Essay on the Trial by Jury (1852) ......................................... 5
`
`Michael Nasser, Plea Bargaining in the Dark: The Duty to Disclose Exculpatory
`Brady Evidence During Plea Bargaining, 81 FORDHAM L. REV. 3599 (2013) ...11
`
`NAT’L ASSOC. OF CRIM. DEF. LAW., THE TRIAL PENALTY: THE SIXTH AMENDMENT
`RIGHT TO TRIAL ON THE VERGE OF EXTINCTION AND HOW TO SAVE IT (2018) ....11
`
`Rachel A. Harmon, Why Arrest?, 115 MICH. L. REV. 307 (2016) ...........................12
`
`Russel M. Gold, Paying for Pretrial Detention, 98 N.C. L. REV. 1255 (2020) ......12
`
`Samuel R. Wiseman, Pretrial Detention and the Right to be Monitored, 123 YALE
`L.J. 1344 (2014) ...................................................................................................11
`
`Suja A. Thomas, What Happened to the American Jury?, LITIGATION, Spring 2017
` ..............................................................................................................................10
`
`THE FEDERALIST NO. 83 ............................................................................................. 6
`
`The Truth About Trials, THE MARSHALL PROJECT: THE SYSTEM (last updated Nov.
`4, 2020), https://www.themarshallproject.org/2020/11/04/the-truth-about-trials
` ..............................................................................................................................10
`
`U.S. SENT’G COMM’N, 2021 ANNUAL REPORT AND SOURCEBOOK OF FEDERAL
`SENTENCING STATISTICS (2021) ...........................................................................10
`
`Why Do Innocent People Plead Guilty To Crimes They Didn’t Commit?, THE
`INNOCENCE PROJECT (2018) .................................................................................10
`
`WILLIAM R. KELLY & ROBERT PITMAN, CONFRONTING UNDERGROUND JUSTICE
`(2018) ...................................................................................................................11
`
`
`
`
`
`iv
`
`

`

`Case: 22-16556, 02/02/2023, ID: 12645388, DktEntry: 30, Page 6 of 21
`
`INTEREST OF AMICUS CURIAE1
`
`The Cato Institute is a nonpartisan public policy research foundation founded
`
`in 1977 and dedicated to advancing the principles of individual liberty, free markets,
`
`and limited government. Cato’s Project on Criminal Justice was founded in 1999,
`
`and focuses in particular on the scope of substantive criminal liability, the proper
`
`and effective role of police in their communities, the protection of constitutional and
`
`statutory safeguards for criminal suspects and defendants, citizen participation in the
`
`criminal justice system, and accountability for law enforcement officers.
`
`Cato’s interest in this case is ensuring that coercive plea-bargaining practices,
`
`like those inherent in Maricopa County’s Retaliation Policy, do not violate the due
`
`process rights of criminal defendants, especially when those due process rights are
`
`necessary for ensuring that defendants can make informed decisions about whether
`
`to exercise their constitutional right to a jury trial.
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`1 Fed. R. App. P. 29 Statement: No counsel for either party authored this brief in
`whole or in part. No one other than amicus and its members made monetary
`contributions to its preparation or submission. All parties have consented to the filing
`of this brief.
`
`1
`
`

`

`Case: 22-16556, 02/02/2023, ID: 12645388, DktEntry: 30, Page 7 of 21
`
`SUMMARY OF THE ARGUMENT
`
`Both the U.S. Constitution and the Arizona State Constitution provide
`
`extensive, detailed, and robust protections for the rights of criminal defendants at
`
`every stage of criminal proceedings. The Sixth Amendment establishes the jury trial
`
`as the cornerstone of criminal adjudication and lays out in specific detail the form
`
`that such trials shall take. Article II, Section 30 of the Arizona Constitution gives
`
`defendants the right to a preliminary hearing to ensure that the state has established
`
`probable cause before proceeding with a criminal prosecution at all. And the Due
`
`Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment protects state-created liberty interests,
`
`like Arizona’s guarantee of the right to a preliminary hearing.
`
`Maricopa County has enacted a coercive scheme designed to short-circuit all
`
`of these constitutional protections. Under the County’s Retaliation Policy,
`
`defendants generally receive only a single day to decide whether to forego a
`
`preliminary hearing and accept a plea offer (thereby waiving their right to a jury trial
`
`as well), with the explicit threat of a harsher subsequent offer if they insist on
`
`exercising their right to a preliminary hearing. See Br. at 5–8. During this brief period
`
`of deliberation, defendants are denied material information about their case—even
`
`information the state would eventually be required to disclose under Brady v.
`
`Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963)—they do not meaningfully receive the assistance of
`
`counsel (as their attorneys have only twenty-four hours to investigate the case and
`
`2
`
`

`

`Case: 22-16556, 02/02/2023, ID: 12645388, DktEntry: 30, Page 8 of 21
`
`advise their clients), and they are typically subject to the extreme coercive pressures
`
`of pretrial incarceration. See Br. at 6–10.
`
`As Plaintiffs-Appellants explain in detail in their Opening Brief, the
`
`Retaliation Policy is unconstitutional because it violates their due process rights by
`
`depriving them of a state-created liberty interest. In particular, the Arizona
`
`Constitution guarantees the right to a preliminary hearing, which serves the vital
`
`purposes of checking prosecutorial overreach and ensuring that no defendant is
`
`prosecuted without probable cause, Br. at 15–23; the state constitutional right to a
`
`preliminary is unambiguously a state-created liberty interest for the purposes of the
`
`Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause, id. at 24–30; and the Retaliation
`
`Policy deprives defendants of this liberty interest by coercing them into waiving their
`
`right to a preliminary hearing, id. at 30–41. Amicus will not retread these arguments
`
`here.
`
`Instead, amicus writes separately to elaborate on how the Retaliation Policy
`
`is an especially aggressive example of coercive plea bargaining, a practice that has
`
`eviscerated the right to a jury trial itself. The right to a jury trial has been described
`
`as “the heart and lungs” of liberty “without which the body must die.” United States
`
`v. Haymond, 139. S. Ct. 2369, 2375 (2019) (internal citations omitted). Yet today,
`
`jury trials have been all but replaced by plea bargaining as the baseline for criminal
`
`adjudication, and there is ample reason to doubt whether the bulk of these pleas are
`
`3
`
`

`

`Case: 22-16556, 02/02/2023, ID: 12645388, DktEntry: 30, Page 9 of 21
`
`truly voluntary. By depriving defendants of their right to a preliminary hearing, the
`
`Retaliation Policy all but ensures that defendants will be incapable of making an
`
`informed, voluntary choice about whether to accept a guilty plea or to put the state
`
`to its burden. The due process violation in this case is therefore especially pernicious
`
`because it amplifies and exacerbates all the traditional problems with coercive plea
`
`bargaining that have already pushed the jury trial to the brink of extinction.
`
`ARGUMENT
`
`DEPRIVING DEFENDANTS OF THEIR RIGHT TO A
`PRELIMINARY HEARING SEVERELY UNDERMINES THE RIGHT
`TO A JURY TRIAL ITSELF.
`
`I.
`
`
`
`The doctrinal question at issue in this appeal is whether the Retaliation Policy
`
`violates the Fourteenth Amendment by virtue of depriving Plaintiffs-Appellants of
`
`a state-created liberty interest, not whether the Retaliation Policy violates the Sixth
`
`Amendment directly. Regardless of whether the District Court erred in dismissing
`
`the explicit Sixth Amendment claims in the First Amended Complaint, the
`
`Retaliation Policy still violates due process by coercing defendants into abandoning
`
`their right to a preliminary hearing. As Plaintiffs-Appellants explain in greater detail,
`
`the District Court improperly conflated these Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment
`
`claims and gave only cursory attention to the state-created liberty interest argument.
`
`Br. at 41–45.
`
`4
`
`

`

`Case: 22-16556, 02/02/2023, ID: 12645388, DktEntry: 30, Page 10 of 21
`
`Nevertheless, the Court should remain cognizant of the effect that the
`
`Retaliation Policy has on the right to a jury trial, precisely because the due-process
`
`violation at issue results in the entry of a plea. A guilty plea, of course, is “an event
`
`of signal significance” that necessarily results in a defendant abandoning their right
`
`to a jury trial entirely. Florida v. Nixon, 543 U.S. 175, 187 (2004). ). Thus, anything
`
`that threatens the voluntariness of guilty pleas equally threatens the jury trial itself—
`
`not because denying the right to a preliminary hearing is itself a Sixth Amendment
`
`violation, but because such hearings are intended, in part, to ensure that defendants
`
`can make a meaningful choice about whether to exercise their right to a trial.
`
`
`
`In that regard, it would be difficult to overstate the centrality of the jury trial
`
`to the Anglo-American legal tradition. The tradition of an independent citizen jury
`
`standing as a check against state power pre-dates the signing of Magna Carta, and
`
`likely even the Norman Conquest. See CLAY CONRAD, JURY NULLIFICATION: THE
`
`EVOLUTION OF A DOCTRINE 13 (2d ed. 2014); see also Lysander Spooner, An Essay
`
`on the Trial by Jury 51–85 (1852) (discussing this tradition both before and after
`
`Magna Carta). In other words, jury independence is as ancient and storied as the
`
`Anglo-Saxon legal tradition itself.
`
`In its modern form, the right to a jury trial developed as a “check or control”
`
`on executive power—an essential “barrier” between “the liberties of the people and
`
`the prerogative of the crown.” Duncan v. Louisiana, 391 U.S. 145, 151, 156 (1968)
`
`5
`
`

`

`Case: 22-16556, 02/02/2023, ID: 12645388, DktEntry: 30, Page 11 of 21
`
`(trial by jury is an “inestimable safeguard against the corrupt or overzealous
`
`prosecutor and against the compliant, biased, or eccentric judge”); see also Jones v.
`
`United States, 526 U.S. 227, 246 (1999) (quoting Blackstone’s characterization of
`
`“trial by jury as ‘the grand bulwark’ of English liberties”). “Those who emigrated to
`
`this country from England brought with them this great privilege ‘as their birthright
`
`and inheritance, as a part of that admirable common law which had fenced around
`
`and interposed barriers on every side against the approaches of arbitrary power.’”
`
`Thompson v. Utah, 170 U.S. 343, 349–50 (1898) (quoting J. STORY, COMMENTARIES
`
`ON THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES § 1779). Alexander Hamilton
`
`observed that “friends and adversaries of the plan of the [constitutional] convention,
`
`if they agree[d] in nothing else, concur[red] at least in the value they set upon the
`
`trial by jury; or if there [was] any difference between them it consist[ed] in this: the
`
`former regard[ed] it as a valuable safeguard to liberty; the latter represent[ed] it as
`
`the very palladium of free government.” THE FEDERALIST NO. 83.
`
`Ultimately, the jury trial was understood not just to be a fair means of deciding
`
`guilt or innocence, but also as an independent institution designed to give the
`
`community a central role in the administration of criminal justice. “Just as suffrage
`
`ensures the people’s ultimate control in the legislative and executive branches,” the
`
`“jury trial is meant to ensure [the people’s] control in the judiciary,” and constitutes
`
`a “fundamental reservation of power in our constitutional structure.” Blakely v.
`
`6
`
`

`

`Case: 22-16556, 02/02/2023, ID: 12645388, DktEntry: 30, Page 12 of 21
`
`Washington, 542 U.S. 296, 306 (2004). By providing an “opportunity for ordinary
`
`citizens to participate in the administration of justice,” the jury trial “preserves the
`
`democratic element of the law,” Powers v. Ohio, 499 U.S. 400, 406-07 (1991), and
`
`“places the real direction of society in the hands of the governed,” AKHIL REED
`
`AMAR, THE BILL OF RIGHTS: CREATION AND RECONSTRUCTION 88 (1998) (quoting
`
`ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE, DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA 293–94 (Phillips Bradley ed.
`
`1945)).
`
`
`
`Thus, by forcing defendants to plead guilty before they have had any
`
`meaningful opportunity to investigate the government’s case against them, Maricopa
`
`County’s Retaliation Policy undermines a central pillar of criminal justice in our
`
`constitutional order. Regardless of whether modern plea-bargaining practices
`
`generally accord with this historical understanding of the jury trial, it is axiomatic
`
`that a plea is only constitutional when it “‘represents a voluntary and intelligent
`
`choice among the alternative courses of action open to the defendant.’” United States
`
`v. Kaczynski, 239 F.3d 1108, 1114 (9th Cir. 2001) (quoting North Carolina v. Alford,
`
`400 U.S. 25, 31 (1970)). But the conditions under which Maricopa County requires
`
`defendants to decide whether to accept a plea preclude any such decision from being
`
`“voluntary and intelligent.”
`
`As Plaintiffs-Appellants explain in detail, most defendants are compelled to
`
`make this life-altering decision in an extraordinarily short period of time without
`
`7
`
`

`

`Case: 22-16556, 02/02/2023, ID: 12645388, DktEntry: 30, Page 13 of 21
`
`adequate information. Br. at 35–39. Defendants typically do not receive their initial
`
`plea offer, including the Retaliation Policy’s threat, until the day before the status
`
`conference at which they must decide whether to waive their right to a preliminary
`
`hearing. (ER-68 ¶¶ 51–52.) Their defense counsel therefore has less than 24 hours
`
`to investigate the case and advise their client. They must also do so on the basis of
`
`incredibly limited information, as Maricopa County prosecutors typically refuse to
`
`turn over any discovery besides the police report at this stage of the proceedings.
`
`(ER-71 ¶ 57.) The County refuses even to permit access to policy body-camera
`
`footage already in the state’s possession. (ER-74–75 ¶¶ 68–69.) And it is practically
`
`impossible for defense counsel to acquire sufficient information in a single day to
`
`enable their clients to make an informed decision on whether to accept a plea—
`
`especially for public defenders already burdened with high caseloads. See Br. at 38–
`
`39, (ER-71 ¶ 59.)
`
`By coercing defendants into accepting a plea without the time or information
`
`necessary to make an informed choice, the Retaliation Policy therefore functions as
`
`end-run around not just the due-process protections of the preliminary hearing, but
`
`also around the very institution that was intended to be the cornerstone of criminal
`
`adjudication under our Constitution.
`
`8
`
`

`

`Case: 22-16556, 02/02/2023, ID: 12645388, DktEntry: 30, Page 14 of 21
`
`II.
`
`PROTECTING THE RIGHT TO A PRELIMINARY HEARING IS
`ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT IN LIGHT OF THE VANISHINGLY
`SMALL ROLE THAT JURY TRIALS PLAY IN OUR CRIMINAL
`JUSTICE SYSTEM.
`
`The jury trial is foundational to the notion of American criminal justice, and
`
`it is discussed more extensively in the Constitution than nearly any other subject.
`
`Article III states, in mandatory, structural language, that “[t]he Trial of all Crimes
`
`. . . shall be by Jury; and such Trial shall be held in the State where the said Crimes
`
`shall have been committed.” U.S. CONST. art. III, § 2 (emphases added). And the
`
`Sixth Amendment not only guarantees the right to a jury trial generally but lays out
`
`in specific detail the form such a trial shall take. See Faretta v. California, 422 U.S.
`
`806, 818 (1975) (“The rights to notice, confrontation, and compulsory process, when
`
`taken together, guarantee that a criminal charge may be answered in a manner now
`
`considered fundamental to the fair administration of American justice . . . .”).
`
` Yet despite their intended centrality as the bedrock of our criminal justice
`
`system, jury trials are being pushed to the brink of extinction. The proliferation of
`
`plea bargaining, which was completely unknown to the Founders, has transformed
`
`our robust “system of trials” into a “system of pleas.” Lafler v. Cooper, 566 U.S.
`
`156, 170 (2012); see also George Fisher, Plea Bargaining’s Triumph, 109 YALE L.J.
`
`857, 859 (2000) (observing that plea bargaining “has swept across the penal
`
`landscape and driven our vanquished jury into small pockets of resistance”). As of
`
`9
`
`

`

`Case: 22-16556, 02/02/2023, ID: 12645388, DktEntry: 30, Page 15 of 21
`
`2021, 98.3% of all convictions in federal court were obtained through guilty pleas,2
`
`and the states are not far behind at around 94%.3
`
`These statistics are especially concerning because there is ample reason to
`
`believe that many criminal defendants—regardless of factual guilt—are effectively
`
`coerced into taking pleas, simply because the risk of going to trial is too great. See
`
`Jed S. Rakoff, Why Innocent People Plead Guilty, N.Y. REV. (Nov. 20, 2014). The
`
`data reflect this conclusion. Out of 362 DNA-based exonerations since 1989, nearly
`
`11% “involved people who pleaded guilty to serious crimes they didn’t commit.”
`
`Why Do Innocent People Plead Guilty To Crimes They Didn’t Commit?, THE
`
`INNOCENCE PROJECT (2018).4 Likewise, “according to the National Registry of
`
`Exonerations, 18 percent of known exonerees pleaded guilty.” Id. Yet even when
`
`faced with an innocent defendant, “[i]nstead of vacating their convictions on the
`
`basis of innocence, the prosecution offers the wrongly convicted a deal—plead
`
`guilty.” Id.
`
`
`2 U.S. SENT’G COMM’N, 2021 ANNUAL REPORT AND SOURCEBOOK OF FEDERAL
`SENTENCING STATISTICS 56 (2021), available at https://tinyurl.com/yzv5m53h.
`
`3 See The Truth About Trials, THE MARSHALL PROJECT: THE SYSTEM (last updated
`Nov. 4, 2020), https://www.themarshallproject.org/2020/11/04/the-truth-about-
`trials; see also Suja A. Thomas, What Happened to the American Jury?, LITIGATION,
`Spring 2017, at 25 (“[J]uries today decide only 1-4 percent of criminal cases filed in
`federal and state court.”).
`
`4 Available at https://guiltypleaproblem.org/#about.
`
`10
`
`

`

`Case: 22-16556, 02/02/2023, ID: 12645388, DktEntry: 30, Page 16 of 21
`
`The government is at a distinct advantage during the plea-bargaining process.
`
`Prosecutors “possess a wide array of levers that they can—and routinely do—bring
`
`to bear on defendants to persuade them to waive their right to trial and simply plead
`
`guilty.” Clark Neily, A Distant Mirror: American-Style Plea Bargaining through the
`
`Eyes of a Foreign Tribunal, 27 GEO. MASON L. REV. 719, 730 (2020). These levers
`
`include: threatening increased penalties for defendants hoping to go to trial
`
`(commonly known as the “trial penalty”),5 threatening to add charges in an effort to
`
`increase a potential sentence,6 the use of pretrial detention,7 withholding exculpatory
`
`evidence during plea negotiations,8 threatening to use uncharged or acquitted
`
`conduct to enhance a potential sentence,9 and threatening to prosecute family
`
`members.10 Id. Two such levers—the coercive power of pretrial detention and
`
`asymmetric information between prosecutors and defendants—are especially
`
`
`5 NAT’L ASSOC. OF CRIM. DEF. LAW., THE TRIAL PENALTY: THE SIXTH AMENDMENT
`RIGHT TO TRIAL ON THE VERGE OF EXTINCTION AND HOW TO SAVE IT 5 (2018),
`https://bit.ly/38IF8KG.
`
`6 Id. at 50.
`
`7 Samuel R. Wiseman, Pretrial Detention and the Right to be Monitored, 123 YALE
`L.J. 1344, 1351–56 (2014).
`
`8 Michael Nasser, Plea Bargaining in the Dark: The Duty to Disclose Exculpatory
`Brady Evidence During Plea Bargaining, 81 FORDHAM L. REV. 3599, 3613 (2013).
`
`9 WILLIAM R. KELLY & ROBERT PITMAN, CONFRONTING UNDERGROUND JUSTICE 75
`(2018).
`
`10 Id.
`
`11
`
`

`

`Case: 22-16556, 02/02/2023, ID: 12645388, DktEntry: 30, Page 17 of 21
`
`relevant to this case, in light of the conditions under which Maricopa County requires
`
`defendants to decide whether to waive their right to a preliminary hearing.
`
`Defendants facing pretrial incarceration face immense pressure to plead
`
`guilty, particularly when holding out for acquittal may mean spending weeks,
`
`months, or years behind bars. See Barker v. Wingo, 407 U.S. 514, 532 (1972) (“The
`
`time spent in jail awaiting trial has a detrimental impact on the individual.”). And it
`
`is no secret that prosecutors take advantage of pretrial detention as a means of
`
`obtaining guilty pleas. See Russel M. Gold, Paying for Pretrial Detention, 98 N.C.
`
`L. REV. 1255, 1269 (2020) (“Detaining a defendant pretrial affords the government
`
`a massive advantage in securing guilty pleas.”). Those incarcerated prior to trial face
`
`economic and societal challenges, including loss of employment, disruption to
`
`family life, and pressure from public accusation of a crime. Rachel A. Harmon, Why
`
`Arrest?, 115 MICH. L. REV. 307, 313–20 (2016). Moreover, defendants detained
`
`before trial “are more likely to be convicted and to serve longer sentences than
`
`defendants with comparable risk levels who are released before trial.” Lauryn P.
`
`Gouldin, Disentangling Flight Risk from Dangerousness, 2016 BYU L. REV. 837,
`
`860 (2016). Therefore, it is unsurprising that “pretrial detainees—even those who
`
`claim innocence—feel heightened pressure to plead guilty.” Id.
`
`
`
`Defendants are also routinely forced to decide whether to enter a guilty plea
`
`without access to material and even exculpatory evidence. As a threshold matter,
`
`12
`
`

`

`Case: 22-16556, 02/02/2023, ID: 12645388, DktEntry: 30, Page 18 of 21
`
`even though Brady v. Marland, 373 U.S. 83, 87 (1963), instructs that “the
`
`suppression by the prosecution of evidence favorable to an accused upon request
`
`violates due process,” federal and state courts are split on whether and how this rule
`
`applies during plea negotiations. See Mansfield v. Williamson Cnty., 30 F.4th 276,
`
`282 & n.9 (5th Cir. 2022) (Higginbotham, J., concurring) (discussing the need for
`
`the Supreme Court to resolve the circuit split on this issue). And even where state
`
`law requires prosecutors to make discovery available at the time of a plea offer,
`
`sufficiently aggressive plea-bargaining practices can circumvent such protections.
`
`Indeed, that is exactly what the Retaliation Policy achieves in this case—even
`
`though the Arizona Rules of Criminal Procedure require prosecutors to provide
`
`discovery before making plea offers in Superior Court, Ariz. R. Crim. P. 15.8(a),
`
`Maricopa County coerces defendants into accepting pleas before their cases ever
`
`reach Superior Court. See Br. at 36–37.
`
`
`
`There is no panacea for the jury’s diminishing role in our criminal justice
`
`system; it is a deep, structural problem that far exceeds the bounds of any one case
`
`or doctrine. But the least we can do to avoid exacerbating the issue is to ensure that
`
`defendants are not deprived of their right to a preliminary hearing, and thereby
`
`precluded from making a knowing and voluntary choice about whether to accept a
`
`plea at all.
`
`
`
`13
`
`

`

`Case: 22-16556, 02/02/2023, ID: 12645388, DktEntry: 30, Page 19 of 21
`
`CONCLUSION
`
`For the foregoing reasons, as well as those presented by Plaintiffs-Appellants,
`
`the Court should reverse the District Court’s judgment and remand for further
`
`proceedings.
`
` Respectfully submitted,
`
`DATED: February 2, 2023.
`
`
`
`
`
`/s/ Jay R. Schweikert
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`Clark M. Neily III
`Jay R. Schweikert
` Counsel of Record
`CATO INSTITUTE
`1000 Mass. Ave., N.W.
`Washington, DC 20001
`(202) 216-1461
`jschweikert@cato.org
`
`Counsel for the Cato Institute
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`14
`
`

`

`Case: 22-16556, 02/02/2023, ID: 12645388, DktEntry: 30, Page 20 of 21
`
`CERTIFICATE OF COMPLIANCE
`
` Pursuant to Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 32 and 9th Circuit Rule 29-2, I
`
`certify that:
`
`1. This brief complies with the type-volume limitation of 9th Circuit Rule 29-2
`
`because it contains 3,069 words, excluding the parts exempted by Fed. R. App. P.
`
`32(f).
`
`2. This brief complies with the typeface requirements of Fed. R. App. P. 32(a)(5)
`
`and the type-style requirements of Fed. R. App. P. 32(a)(6) because it has been
`
`prepared in a proportionally spaced typeface in 14-point Times New Roman font.
`
`/s/ Jay R. Schweikert
`February 2, 2023
`
`
`
`
`15
`
`

`

`Case: 22-16556, 02/02/2023, ID: 12645388, DktEntry: 30, Page 21 of 21
`
`CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
`
`
`
`
`
`I hereby certify that I electronically filed the foregoing with the Clerk of
`
`Court, who will enter it into the CM/ECF system, which will send a notification of
`
`such filing to the appropriate counsel.
`
`
`
`/s/ Jay R. Schweikert
`February 2, 2023
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`16
`
`

We are redirecting you
to a mobile optimized page.

Samuel  Luckey, et al v. Rachel  Mitchell, 22-16556, No. 30 (9th Cir. Feb. 2, 2023) (2024)
Top Articles
Latest Posts
Article information

Author: Otha Schamberger

Last Updated:

Views: 6190

Rating: 4.4 / 5 (55 voted)

Reviews: 86% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: Otha Schamberger

Birthday: 1999-08-15

Address: Suite 490 606 Hammes Ferry, Carterhaven, IL 62290

Phone: +8557035444877

Job: Forward IT Agent

Hobby: Fishing, Flying, Jewelry making, Digital arts, Sand art, Parkour, tabletop games

Introduction: My name is Otha Schamberger, I am a vast, good, healthy, cheerful, energetic, gorgeous, magnificent person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.