People v. Powell

OPINION OF THE COURT

Stanley Gartenstein, J.

Plea bargaining has emerged as the “hot” issue whose time has come. While public debate focuses on moral and philosophical aspects, the legal issues relevant thereto are being telescoped in a series of recent decisions codifying this potentially troublesome area of the law. Obviously, with judicial codification of a relatively new subdiscipline within the criminal law taking place so rapidly, important basic areas are left in doubt. We deal here with one of these, the question of whether or not a presentence investigation may be waived by a…