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Arguments Against Plea Bargaining

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Plea Bargaining: Should it be abolished in the United States criminal justice system? Millions of criminals each year are absolved of charges and set back into society, endangering all citizens, while millions of innocent individuals are deprived of their right to justice. This happens due, in part, to plea bargains made for the benefit of said criminal - not only does America’s justice system ignore the needs of innocent families in exchange for their salary, but they don’t bat an eye at the further harm done by the offenders after they so recklessly let them go. Thus, plea bargaining is a major factor in the grief of many families across the nation. “The very essence of deterrence is credibility.” (Source C) Criminals set back into society …show more content…

“Eliminating plea bargaining will increase the degree of accountability that defense attorneys are held to.” (Source A) If the attorneys become more motivated, the entire community is safer, and there would be a provenly smaller error margin in the courts. Also, from the evidence previously selected, anyone can see that leaving plea bargaining as it is would be to excuse attorneys from any type of hard work or dedication. Therefore, it would be condemning the innocent people who lose in court as a result of the half-caring lawyers. Most people are at least somewhat invested in their own self interest, so no attorney is likely to feel an obligation to perform - they crave the growth of their salary, not allies. It is obvious that ridding our system of plea bargains would force them to work to succeed, and this would result in an increased interest in their clients. The innocent would finally receive with the service they deserve, and overall, there would be less court corruption. Getting rid of plea bargaining would definitely be in the best interest of the

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The author looks at the time period that the three were released and discusses the reason for their release, which is Alford plea. In this case, the defendant is voluntarily forced to plead guilty while still proclaiming his or her innocence. The author also looks at the evidence and ends up concluding that that there was little evidence that linked the defendants to the murder. In addition, the author criticizes the state’s government for forcing the men to plead guilty. Using another case, the author looks into this matter by examining the flaws related to the Alford’s plea.

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These lawyers can sometimes be swayed with money and argue points that would not always hold up well in court. Points such as Couch having a “diminished sense of responsibility,” however, are presented in a way that would have anyone believe that they are logical. On the other hand, those with less money are appointed public defenders. These lawyers do not always have their clients best interests at heart because they are either handling many cases at once or they are not being paid as much as the private defenders. Either way, people with less money have a greater chance of ending up with a more severe sentence than those who have money that can buy their way out of certain

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1125 Words | 5 Pages

"If the Defendant confesses to the defense attorney in the hallway this morning, the defense attorney’s job is still to do the best job he can to defend him. " This was an attempt to try and sway the jury into looking down upon the defense attorney, which will still defend their client, even if they know they are guilty. I believe that whether or not the client confesses his guilt or not, the defense attorney should still do everything to spare his client, just like how the prosecution will try everything legally possible to try and get a

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416 Words | 2 Pages

In fact the Supreme Court of Illinois established the Commission on Professionalism to promote among lawyers and judge of Illinois principles of integrity, professionalism and civility: to foster commitment to the elimination of bias and divisiveness within the legal and judicial system; and to ensure that those systems provide equitable, effective and efficient resolution of problems and disputes for the people of Illinois. (Rule 799(a). Then going out in the real world seeing it happen, first hand. All I can say is I have been an apart of this great Commission for seven year and we have a lot of work to

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652 Words | 3 Pages

Both sides will carefully weigh the strength of their case and decide whether it is prudent to go to trial. The prosecution may also consider the publicity surrounding the case and whether there is public pressure to prosecute that particular defendant to the full extent of the law. The defense will consider the individual defendant’s desire to go to trial and the seriousness of the potential sentence. The Pros of Plea Bargaining

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601 Words | 3 Pages

In the United States court system, many criminal cases are not resolved in a timely manner. One of the more common ways in which many cases are resolved quickly is through plea bargaining. Plea bargaining is defined as an agreement between defense attorneys and prosecutors. (Spohn & Hemmens, 2012) Alschuler (1979) describes plea bargaining as the self-conviction act of a defendant. Today, approximately ninety percent of defendants plead guilty because of plea bargaining.

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352 Words | 2 Pages

The controversy of plea bargains go with the stigma of using plea-bargains in every court case. Plea bargains can be useful,

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1023 Words | 5 Pages

A topic such as a plea bargain has many supporters and opponents. Because "plea bargaining is responsible for 97 percent of federal felony convictions" (Lat), it is an essential topic to research and discover whether or not it should remain in place and the impact it has already had on the judicial system. But first, what is "plea bargaining? " Plea bargaining is when a defendant is at risk of high sentencing or punishment but is faced "with an opportunity to plead guilty to a lesser charge or the original charge with less than the maximum sentence" (Dever).

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949 Words | 4 Pages

With millions of criminal convictions a year, more than two million people may end up behind bars(Gross). According to Samuel Gross reporter for The Washington Post, writes that also “even one percent amounts to tens of thousands of tragic [wrongful conviction] errors”(Gross). Citizens who are wrongfully convicted are incarcerated for a crime he or she did not commit. Many police officers, prosecutors, and judges are responsible for the verdict that puts innocents into prison. To be able to get exonerated many wait over a decade just to get there case looked at, not many are able to have the opportunity of getting out.

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508 Words | 3 Pages

Sometimes, the best strategy for a drug crime defense attorney is to negotiate a plea bargain. A plea bargain is an agreement between the defense and prosecution, in which the defendant agrees to plead guilty in exchange for reduced charges or a more lenient sentence. This strategy may be appropriate if the evidence against the defendant is strong, or if there is a risk of a harsh sentence if the case goes to trial. Presenting Mitigating Factors

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539 Words | 3 Pages

The biggest issue within the Criminal Justice system is the large number of wrongful convictions, innocent people sentenced to die for crimes they did not commit. People are put in prison for years, even executed for false convictions. This affects not only those put in prison but friends and family of the accused. Wrongful convictions aren’t solely a tragedy for those directly involved either. It weakens the faith the public has for the justice system as well as poses safety issues; when innocent people are put away, the real criminals are still out there.

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965 Words | 4 Pages

Since the courts are backlogged and many public defenders and judges being overworked, this causes plea bargaining to be used repeatedly. According to Walker et al. (2018), plea bargaining leaves many people no option but to plea guilty even when this is not their best option. This is due to a multitude of reasons but mainly to receive a lesser charge. For example, a felony and little time in jail may be better than risking multiple felonies and an excessive amount of time in jail.

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1479 Words | 6 Pages

Today our justice system has a multitude of options when dealing with those who are convicted of offenses. However, many argue that retributive justice is the only real justice there is. This is mainly because its advantage is that it gives criminals the appropriate punishment that they deserve. The goals of this approach are clear and direct. In his book The Little Book of Restorative Justice, Zehr Howard (2002), illustrates that the central focus of retributive justice is offenders getting what they deserve (p. 30).

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1160 Words | 5 Pages

4 Criticism and Challenges The first point of criticism against victim participation in restorative justice processes arises from scepticism about an apology to the victim as a way of dealing with criminal matters. The perception sometimes exists as to it simply being a way to get away with the crime.106 Members of the public should thus be educated to understand that restorative justice is more than a mere saying sorry, but in the context of victim offender mediation or family group conferences it rather affords the victim the opportunity to confront the child offender with the real and human cost of his or her criminal actions. Another concern deals with the possible secondary victimisation of the victim in the case where the offender pretends

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485 Words | 2 Pages

After reading this case, it made me wonder if plea deals and other tactics law enforcement uses to get defendants to say their guilty violate their fifth amendment. Majority of the prisoners we have in our system are on plea deals and are strongly pushed towards plea deals because "their sentence will be shorter". With that being said majority of our prisons are from low socioeconomic classes with public defenders so they can 't afford a lawyer that will go that extra mile. Maybe this a strong hunch but are plea deals against our fifth amendment? Can our society ever be just or is justice for all possible?

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