Opinion ID: 2576334
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Court Must State Its Reasons for Rejecting a Plea on the Record

Text: ¶ 20 As a means of demonstrating that the trial court gave all due consideration to the plea, the majority of jurisdictions require that judges make their reasoning for rejecting a proposed plea agreement a matter of record. See, e.g., Darlington, 105 P.3d at 232 (The trial court must ... articulate the reasons for rejecting an agreement on the record.). [11] We agree that requiring district courts to articulate a sound reason for rejecting a plea is the surest way to foster the sound exercise of judicial discretion. Moore, 916 F.2d at 1136. By adopting this rule, we facilitate[] appellate review when the defendant contends that the district court abused its discretion in rejecting a plea. United States v. Kraus, 137 F.3d 447, 453 (7th Cir.1998); see also Robertson, 45 F.3d at 1438 (Requiring district courts to articulate the reasons for rejecting a plea agreement not only helps insure the court is aware of and gives adequate deference to prosecutorial discretion, it is the surest, indeed the only way to facilitate appellate review of rejected plea bargains.). ¶ 21 To summarize, the weight of authority stands for the following propositions: (1) while a trial court retains broad discretion to reject a proposed plea agreement, it may not do so arbitrarily; (2) a court need not apply a list of mandatory factors in rejecting a plea; but (3) it must state its general reasoning for rejecting the plea on the record. We adopt these principles for review of plea agreements in Utah.