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'Guilty, Your Honour’: Recent legislative developments on the guilty plea discount and an Australian Capital Territory case study on its operation
Citation
Wren, E and Bartels, L, 'Guilty, Your Honour': Recent legislative developments on the guilty plea discount and an Australian Capital Territory case study on its operation, Adelaide Law Review, 35 pp. 361-384. ISSN 0065-1915 (2014) [Refereed Article]
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Copyright Statement
© Copyright is vested in the Association and, in relation to each article, in its author, 2014.
Official URL: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283667014...
Abstract
The overwhelming majority of defendants in Australian criminal courts
plead guilty and most Australian jurisdictions include a guilty plea in their
sentencing legislation as a mitigating factor. However, the application of
this reduction varies significantly. In an attempt to provide a better understanding
of this aspect of sentencing, this article examines the legislation
and case law on guilty pleas, with a particular focus on the Australian
Capital Territory. The article contextualises this discussion by examining
the High Court’s position on sentence reductions for guilty pleas, as well
as the New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal’s guideline judgment
in R v Thomson; R v Houlton (2000) 49 NSWLR 383. Recent key
legislative amendments in relation to quantifying guilty pleas are then
discussed, revealing the often subtle but meaningful differences in the
legislation across Australia. This is followed by a case study analysis of
300 recent cases in the Australian Capital Territory Supreme Court, which
provides important insight into the practical operation of the discount in
a jurisdiction that has traditionally seen little sentencing research. The
article concludes with some observations on future directions for policy
and practice.
Item Details
| Item Type: | Refereed Article |
|---|---|
| Research Division: | Law and Legal Studies |
| Research Group: | Law in context |
| Research Field: | Criminal law |
| Objective Division: | Expanding Knowledge |
| Objective Group: | Expanding knowledge |
| Objective Field: | Expanding knowledge in law and legal studies |
| UTAS Author: | Bartels, L (Ms Lorana Bartels) |
| ID Code: | 105502 |
| Year Published: | 2014 |
| Deposited By: | Faculty of Law |
| Deposited On: | 2016-01-06 |
| Last Modified: | 2016-07-28 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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