criminal-law us-constitution florida plea
Can a public defender threaten a defendant into signing a plea using false promises?
<p>Can a public defender threaten someone into signing using strong methods such as this?</p>

<p>"If you don't sign this plea for 15 years, I promise the state will prosecute you for 25 years and win!!!"</p>

<p>The closest case to this is <em>Brady v. United States 397 U.S. 742 (1970)</em>:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>We here make no reference to the situation where the prosecutor or judge, or both, deliberately employ their charging and sentencing powers to induce a particular defendant to tender a plea of guilty. In Brady' case, there is no claim that the prosecutor threatened prosecution on a charge not justified by the evidence or that the trial judge threatened Brady with a harsher sentence if convicted after trial in order to induce him to plead guilty.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>In <em>Brady</em>, had he not entered a guilty plea, he would have been risking the death penalty. The court recognized:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>It may be that Brady, faced with a strong case against him and recognizing that his chances for acquittal were slight, preferred to plead guilty, and thus limit the penalty to life imprisonment, rather than to elect a jury trial which could result in a death penalty.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>They upheld the plea:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Although Brady's plea of guilty may well have been motivated in part by a desire to avoid a possible death penalty, we are convinced that his plea was voluntarily and intelligently made, and we have no reason to doubt that his solemn admission of guilt was truthful.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>So, even in the case where the risk of a death penalty may have motivated a guilty plea, the plea has been upheld.</p>

<hr>

<p>All of the above is with respect to actions of the prosecution. In any case, the main test is whether the defendant entered a plea voluntarily and intelligently.</p>

<p>An alternate interpretation of the verb "promise" is:</p>

<p>"<em>In my considered opinion</em>, the prosecutors will seek a 25 year sentence, and again, <em>in my considered opinion</em> they will win!"  </p>
