Experts say it is common for someone to receive a relatively light sentence following a guilty or no-contest plea, as the cases of several Penn students and professors have shown over the past few months.
Most recently, former Economics professor Rafael Robb was sentenced Wednesday to five to 10 years in prison for killing his wife following a guilty plea of voluntary manslaughter.
He originally pleaded not guilty to charges of first and third-degree murder, for which he could have received a life sentence if convicted.
Philadelphia criminal defense attorney William Brennan said people who plead guilty are likely to receive favorable sentences because they have acknowledged their wrongdoings.
"If you want mercy, enter a guilty plea," said Brennan, who is not affiliated with any of the Penn cases. He added that pleading guilty "is the first step in rehabilitation."
Brennan also said the court gives lighter sentences to people who plead guilty because they avoid wasting the court's time and money with a trial.
Another Philadelphia criminal defense attorney, Patrick Artur, said Robb's decision to plead guilty to a lesser offense influenced his sentence.
Artur said he believes the bargain occurred because the prosecution did not have enough evidence to convict Robb of the more serious crimes.
Earlier this week, former Marketing professor Scott Ward pleaded guilty to five child pornography-related charges. Ward took an open plea, meaning he is not guaranteed a reduced sentence.
Under federal sentencing guidelines, Ward could face life in prison. However, Brennan said most people receive shorter sentences even if they have open pleas.
Artur also said Ward likely pleaded guilty so that he can serve at least some of his new sentence concurrently with the 15-year sentence he is already serving for other child pornography charges.
Robb is not the only person related to the University who has recently received a short sentence because of a guilty plea.
In October, Engineering senior Ryan Goldstein received a sentence of one year of various types of confinement, a $30,000 fine and five years of probation for his involvement in a hacking scheme that crashed the School of Engineering and Applied Science's server.
He pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting another person to gain unauthorized access to a protected computer.
Goldstein was also caught with child pornography on his computer but was not charged with its possession because he helped authorities catch others involved in the hacking scheme.
Former Wharton undergraduate Irina Malinovskaya pleaded no contest on June 5 to manslaughter charges in the death of her ex-boyfriend's then-girlfriend.
A no-contest plea means Malinovskaya did not admit guilt but acknowledged prosecutors had enough evidence for a conviction.
Malinovskaya received a sentence of five years in prison. She had originally been charged with first and third-degree murder and could have faced life in prison if convicted on those charges.
