Convictions In Criminal Cases
Though the prosecution also closes the deal by agreeing to a plea deal which results in not be able to charge the criminal with several
A plea bargain is an agreement between the prosecutor and the defendant in a criminal case. The prosecutor gives the defendant the opportunity to plead guilty to a lesser charge or to the original charge with less than the maximum sentence. For example, the prosecution and the defense may agree to a misdemeanor charge instead of a felony charge or the parties may agree to a sentence of 12 years instead of 20 years if the recommended sentence for that crime is 10-20 years imprisonment.
A defense lawyer who has a heavy workload may persuade the criminal defendant to take the plea, which gives up an important constitutional right, a right to trial, in order to close many cases that he or she may be currently handling as swiftly as possible. Plea bargaining can also stir up ethical issues since criminal defendants can get off too easily with deductions in sentencing. Once a bargain for a reduced sentence is given, the victim may not be too fond of this adjustment from the original charge. The victim and their family could feel as if the justice system failed them, especially if the criminal defendant did not receive the punishment that they
Plea bargain offers many pros to both the prosecutors and the defendants. For a defendant, the major advantage of plea bargaining can be to take away the improbability of a criminal trial. Having defendants use the plea bargain law helps the prosecutors to handle more cases (Larson). Most defendants want to avoid risking getting a maximum sentence. Usually prosecutor’s possible (likely) use plea bargain to avoid a messy trial to stop from harming their reputation (Larson).
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.
The controversy of plea bargains go with the stigma of using plea-bargains in every court case. Plea bargains can be useful,
A plea bargain is a compromise between defense attorneys and the prosecution on behalf of the defendant. In an effort to avoid a long and costly court trial, the prosecution offers a sentence, in exchange, the defendant agrees to plead guilty and receives a reduction in charges and/or a lesser sentence. Plea bargains are commonplace, 90% of criminal cases are resolved with the use of plea bargaining (book). Established in the 1970's in Brady v. the United States, the legal foundation and constitutionality of plea bargaining has been debated. While there have been many critics of plea bargaining, there have also been many that support the court systems use of plea bargaining.
As the book says that there are innocent people who are charged and convicted for crimes that they did not even commit but their past gets in the way and they may feel force to take a plea bargaining if they believe the judge will wrongfully convict them. Also there have been cases where people have taken a plea bargain after having committed a worse crime and they are let off the hook and are charged for a lesser crime they had recently committed which is not fair for the victim. After all justice will be served at some point and the victim will get closure and the malefactor will pay its
Many people today think that the justice system is broken or rigged, but in comparison to past justice systems, the justice system today in the United States is very fair. Some cases do not get prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, such as the Dred Scot case did. There are many cases where the prosecutor will not try the case in return for some sort of deal. The Bureau of Justice Statistics states, “In some jurisdictions, defendants, often those without prior criminal records, may be eligible for diversion from prosecution subject to the completion of specific conditions such as drug treatment. Successful completion of the conditions may result in the dropping of charges or the expunging of the criminal record where the defendant is required to plead guilty prior to the diversion”.
There are eight general factors listed below that influence a judge’s decision to sentence the accused in a case. These secondary legal factors are not supposed to influence a judge’s decision, but they do because they are only human (Bohm & Haley, 2012). Under the black robe of authority, judges are human and contain all the prejudices just like regular citizens. Some of the characteristics that have been found to affect the judge 's sentencing decisions are: (1) the socioeconomic background of the judges. (2) Their academic qualifications and the law school that they attended.
People plead guilty for crimes that are not committed by them to avoid trial, but by doing so the right decision wasn’t made.
Since 1930, 90 percent of individuals executed for rape have been African Americans. This issue has faced multiple controversies due to the belief of “complete confidence” of the criminal justice system (Harmon, 2004). Wrongful convictions have historically occurred due to the races of the defendant versus the race of the victim. This is an in issue because these cases impair the integrity and reliability of the court system (Harmon, 2004). Wrong convictions are not as uncommon as believed by the public.
For those in prison, those who snitch saying the defendant confessed, testifying can be a bargaining chip; the state will often reduce sentence time or
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.
An example is when his attorney is representing the defendant’s “co-defendants” who are charged with participating in the same crime with the defendant The judge assigned for the hearing to approve the defendant’s guilty plea was involved extensively in the plea negotiations, or maybe even came up with the plea deal itself, and the defendant fears the judge’s retaliation if he doesn’t take the deal The defendant isn’t mentally competent at the time he agrees to the plea, for example, due to a developmental disability, intoxication or influence of narcotics What
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