article_snippet: That figure suggests the practice may not be as rare as people think and may happen more often outside the public view and without the blessing of a court.
article_snippet: However, such deals do happen.
article_snippet: Assistant public defender Joan Lawson said it was typically not an explicit demand, was not an everyday occurrence and was made off the record.
article_snippet: That is what Paul Lombardo, a law professor and historian who teaches at Georgia State University've done in the past, and that's a good reason not to do it now.'