Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-2014
Journal Title
Brigham Young University Law Review
ISSN
0360-151X
Abstract
According to the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”), deferred prosecution agreements are said to occupy an “important middle ground” between declining to prosecute on the one hand, and trials or guilty pleas on the other. A top DOJ official has declared that, over the last decade, the agreements have become a “mainstay” of white collar criminal law enforcement; a prominent criminal law professor calls their increased use part of the “biggest change in corporate law enforcement policy in the last ten years.”
However, despite deferred prosecution’s apparent rise in popularity among law enforcement officials, the article sets forth the argument that this alternative dispute resolution vehicle makes a mockery of the criminal justice system by serving as a disturbing wellspring of unfairness, double standards, and potential abuse of power. The article concludes by recommending that Congress pass legislation to halt DOJ’s ability to use deferred prosecution agreements in the context of corporate criminal law enforcement. The article suggests that if this goal cannot be realized, these agreements will continue to greatly compromise the pursuit of justice, consistency in the rule of law, and basic notions of fairness.
First Page
307
Last Page
358
Num Pages
52
Volume Number
2015
Issue Number
2
Publisher
J. Reuben Clark Law School
Recommended Citation
Peter Reilly,
Justice Deferred is Justice Denied: We Must End Our Failed Experiment in Deferring Corporate Criminal Prosecutions,
2015
BYU L. Rev.
307
(2014).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/facscholar/869
File Type
Included in
Commercial Law Commons, Criminal Law Commons, Dispute Resolution and Arbitration Commons, Litigation Commons