Holder announces new policy banning waivers in plea bargains

Criminal defendants who reach a plea bargain with prosecutors will no longer be pressured to waive their right to appeal by claiming their lawyer was incompetent, Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder, Jr. announced Monday.

For years, some federal prosecutors have demanded that in return for a plea bargain and lesser jail time, defendants sign a waiver precluding an appeal based on claims they got bad advice from their lawyer.

Thirty-five of the nation’s 93 U.S. attorney’s offices currently use such waivers, despite protests from defense lawyers and civil libertarians that such coercion violates the right to counsel guaranteed by the 6th Amendment.

“Everyone in this country who faces criminal legal action deserves the opportunity to make decisions with the assistance of effective legal counsel,” Holder said in a statement. “Under this policy, no defendant will have to forgo their right to able representation in the course of pleading guilty to a crime.”

Holder, who announced in September that he would step down when the Senate confirms a successor, has announced a series of initiatives over the last 18 months designed to make the criminal justice system fairer to defendants, particularly minorities.

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