(a) Each district attorney’s office establishing a career criminal prosecution unit and receiving state support under this chapter shall adopt and pursue the following policies for career criminal cases:
(1) A plea of guilty or a trial conviction will be sought on all the offenses charged in the accusatory pleading against an individual meeting career criminal selection criteria.
(2) All reasonable prosecutorial efforts will be made to resist the pretrial release of a charged defendant meeting career criminal selection criteria.
(3) All reasonable prosecutorial efforts will be made to persuade the court to impose the most severe authorized sentence upon a person convicted after prosecution as a career criminal.
(4) All reasonable prosecutorial efforts will be made to reduce the time between arrest and disposition of charge against an individual meeting career criminal selection criteria.
(b) The prosecution shall not negotiate a plea agreement with a defendant in a career criminal prosecution; and Sections 1192.1 to 1192.5, inclusive, shall not apply, nor shall any plea of guilty or nolo contendere authorized by any such section, or any plea of guilty or nolo contendere as a result of any plea agreement be approved by the court in a career criminal prosecution.
(c) For purposes of this section a “plea agreement” means an agreement by the defendant to plead guilty or nolo contendere in exchange for any or all of the following: a dismissal of charges, a reduction in the degree of a charge, a change of a charge to a lesser or different crime, a specific manner or extent of punishment.
(d) This section does not prohibit the reduction of the offense charged or dismissal of counts in the interest of justice when a written declaration by the prosecuting attorney stating the specific factual and legal basis for such reduction or dismissal is presented to the court and the court, in writing, acknowledges acceptance of such declaration. A copy of such declaration and acceptance shall be retained in the case file. The only basis upon which charges may be reduced or counts dismissed by the court shall be in cases where the prosecuting attorney decides that there is insufficient evidence to prove the people’s case, the testimony of a material witness cannot be obtained, or a reduction or dismissal would not result in a substantial change in sentence.
In any case in which the court or magistrate grants the prosecuting attorney’s motion for a reduction of charges or dismissal of counts because there would be no substantial change in sentence, the court or magistrate shall require the prosecuting attorney to put on the record in open court the following:
(1) The charges filed in the complaint or information and the maximum statutory penalty that could be given if the defendant were convicted of all such charges.
(2) The charges which would be filed against the defendant if the court or magistrate grants the prosecuting attorney’s motion and the maximum statutory penalty which can be given for these charges.
(e) This section does not prohibit a plea agreement when there are codefendants, and the prosecuting attorney determines that the information or testimony of the defendant making the agreement is necessary for the conviction of one or more of the other codefendants. The court shall condition its acceptance of the plea agreement on the defendant giving the information or testimony.
Before the court can accept the plea agreement, the prosecuting attorney shall present a written declaration to the court, specifying the legal and factual reasons for the agreement, and the court shall acknowledge in writing its acceptance of that declaration. A copy of the declaration and acceptance shall be retained in the case file.
(Added by Stats. 1982, Ch. 42, Sec. 1. Effective February 17, 1982.)