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Extracted Text (OCR)
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defendant. Even the most ably represented defendant
cannot overcome this unequal balance of power. The
government’s substantial “advantage in bargaining
power” means that ambiguities like this one must be
construed against the government. United States v.
Gebbie, 294 F.3d 540, 552 (8d Cir. 2002).
Defense counsel confront their clients’ unequal
bargaining power every time they attempt to obtain
a resolution that is in the best interest of their client
while mollifying a prosecutor who has little institutional
incentive to be lenient. Judge Charles Breyer accurately
described the process:
It is no answer to say that [the defendant] is
striking a deal with the Government, and could
reject this term if he wanted to, because that
statement does not reflect the reality of the
bargaining table. See Erik Luna & Marianne
Wade, Prosecutors as Judges, 67 Wasu. & LEE
L. Rev. 1413, 1414-15 (2010). As to terms such
as this one, plea agreements are contracts of
adhesion. The Government offers the defendant
a deal, and the defendant can take it or leave it.
Id. “American prosecutors ... choose whether
to engage in plea negotiations and the terms
of an acceptable agreement.”). If he leaves it,
he does so at his peril. And the peril is real,
because on the other side of the offer is the
enormous power of the United States Attorney
to investigate, to order arrests, to bring a case
or to dismiss it, to recommend a sentence or
the conditions of supervised release, and on
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