Criminal lawyers have been accused of a lot of “stuff.” Suborning perjury, playing fast and loose with the truth in court, misleading prosecutors, intimidating prosecution witnesses, etc. There are some rotten apples at the Bar.
But now we’re collectively accused of something more astonishing: a willingness to “intentionally not communicat[e] a plea offer to a defendant in order to ‘bank’ a better outcome for the defendant if the trial turns out poorly.”1 That’s right, the national “fraternity” of criminal lawyers is being accused of a proclivity to “sandbag.” The purpose? To give clients a second bite of the apple by enabling them to seek vacatur of their convictions when they proceed to trial, get convicted and are sentenced more harshly than an initially proposed, but undisclosed plea offer.2
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