Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-2025
Journal Title
St. John's Law Review
ISSN
0036-2905
Abstract
While the U.S. Supreme Court has characterized the criminal legal system as a “system of pleas,” new empirical evidence suggests that, at least for misdemeanors, it is more accurately described as a system of dismissals. This Article draws on New York’s Pretrial Release Dataset, a unique publicly available administrative dataset that, to date, includes over 1.3 million criminal cases with 112 variables, of which 914,521 are misdemeanors. No other state in the country has made comparable criminal case-processing data publicly accessible at this scale. Using this dataset, the Article examines criminal case processing in ways that were not previously possible, shedding new light on plea bargaining, prosecutorial actions, and case outcomes. The data reveal that nearly 60 percent of misdemeanor cases statewide are dismissed, with dismissal rates reaching as high as 73 percent in some counties, particularly in New York City—findings that fundamentally challenge prevailing assumptions about the centrality of plea bargaining in misdemeanor adjudication. The Article analyzes dismissal rates and reasons for dismissal across counties and offense types, explores whether different forms of legal representation affect outcomes, and documents racial and ethnic disparities. Finally, it demonstrates how administrative data can be used to model misdemeanor case processing and to better inform practicing lawyers about strategic decision-making, including when to advise clients to delay accepting plea offers. These findings underscore the need for greater data transparency, improved prosecutorial screening, and more informed lawyering, with implications for misdemeanor reform well beyond New York.
First Page
321
Last Page
377
Num Pages
57
Volume Number
99
Issue Number
2
Publisher
St. John's University School of Law
Recommended Citation
Cynthia Alkon, Jonathan Marshall, Kyle Chrisman & Lydia Sidhom,
Disposing of Misdemeanors: An Empirical Perspective,
99
St. John's L. Rev.
321
(2025).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/facscholar/2321
File Type
Included in
Criminal Law Commons, Criminal Procedure Commons, Law and Society Commons, Law Enforcement and Corrections Commons, State and Local Government Law Commons