Requiring Attorney-General's Chambers to Indicate Plea Offer and Sentencing Position Early
Ministry of LawSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns Ms Hany Soh's inquiry on whether the Attorney-General’s Chambers should be required to indicate plea offers and sentencing positions by Stage 1 of court proceedings. Minister for Law K Shanmugam explained that the 12-week Stage 1 timeline provides sufficient time for legal advice, with the Prosecution already indicating plea offers during the readiness hearing. He noted that Courts can consider reasons for delay, such as factors outside an accused person's control, when determining sentence reductions for guilty pleas. However, the Ministry of Law will not mandate early sentencing positions for all cases to preserve the Public Prosecutor's discretion in managing complex matters. The Minister emphasized that the current framework was established via stakeholder consultation to balance the encouragement of early pleas with necessary prosecutorial flexibility.
Transcript
22 Ms Hany Soh asked the Minister for Law in respect of the Guidelines on Reduction in Sentencing for Guilty Pleas, whether the Ministry will consider (i) requiring the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) to indicate its plea offer and sentencing position by Stage 1 of court proceedings and (ii) for the 12-week timeline to commence only upon AGC’s indication, to better assist accused persons in making decisions and defence counsel in advising their clients.
Mr K Shanmugam: The Guidelines on Reduction in Sentences for Guilty Pleas (PG Guidelines), which were issued by the inter-agency Sentencing Advisory Panel, are intended to encourage accused persons who intend to plead guilty, to do so early. This is done by setting out the ranges of reduction in sentence that a Court may consider granting, based on the stage of proceedings at which an accused person pleads guilty.
Under the PG Guidelines, Stage One ends 12 weeks after the hearing when the Prosecution informs the Court and the accused person that the case is ready for the plea to be taken. The Prosecution will indicate its plea offer, if there is any, at this hearing. This would allow accused persons to consider if they wish to take up the plea offer and plead guilty.
The PG Guidelines, including the 12-week timeline under Stage One, were arrived at after consultation with key stakeholders. The 12-week timeline under Stage One is intended to provide accused persons sufficient time to consider if they wish to plead guilty, as well as to engage a lawyer and seek legal advice on their plea, if they wish to do so. An accused person who wants to take advantage of the maximum PG reduction under Stage One, can take these steps and indicate his position within 12 weeks.
In cases where an accused person takes more time to indicate that he wishes to plead guilty, the PG Guidelines provide that the Court may consider the reasons for any delay – for example, whether the delay was due to matters outside the accused person’s control, whether the accused person had taken timely steps to obtain legal advice, and so on – in deciding on the appropriate reduction in sentence to be applied.
Where possible, the Prosecution will communicate its sentencing position to the Defence ahead of time. However, the Prosecution may not be able to indicate its sentencing position in all cases, at an early stage. The Public Prosecutor ought to have flexibility to deal with cases, which may be more straightforward or highly complex. The Ministry of Law cannot mandate that the Public Prosecutor provide the sentencing position in Stage One in all cases. The Public Prosecutor should be allowed to exercise prosecutorial discretion.