ipl-logo

Essay Against Plea Bargaining

820 Words4 Pages

I negate the resolution; Plea bargaining ought to be abolished in the United States criminal justice system. I value societal welfare defined as the application of judicial practices and protection of society. My criterion to support my value is developing an effective justice system. This means that in a world of compromise, the most success is achieved by giving the greatest good to the greatest number of people. This belief applies directly to plea bargaining, the most justice must be delt to the greatest number of people. Societal welfare is best upheld with a criterion of maintaining an effective justice system defined as the system of practices and institutions of governments directed at upholding social control, deterring and mitigating crime, or sanctioning those who violate laws with criminal penalties and rehabilitation efforts...

Contention I: Plea Bargaining increases the overall judicial efficiency

A. Plea Bargaining leads to …show more content…

Eliminating plea bargains would clog up the courts almost indefinitely.” In 1992 court systems in the Bronx abolished plea bargaining, as a result the number of pending cases grew. At the end of September, 51 percent of pending felony indictments exceeded the six-month statutory period allotted for a speedy trial - one year later it grew to 60.5 %. The same is modeled in Alaska, Their Trial rates more than doubled in the two years after the ban. This shows that By abolishing plea bargaining we subject ourselves to serious congestion within the court's and violate defendants rights. “The system would collapse if every case that was filed in the criminal justice system were to be set for trial," says Judge Caprice Cosper . The court system heavily relies on the use of pleas to keep the system moving; they enable courts to handle a lot more “traffic”—to resolve more criminal cases than they could through

Show More
Related
619 Words | 3 Pages

In today's era, when a criminal is charged for various crimes their given a shortcut to justice by simply accepting a plea deal. In this case, Larry Servedio faces multiple felonies: first-degree kidnapping, first-degree rape, third-degree rape, third-degree criminal sexual act, third-degree criminal mischief, criminal impersonation, second-degree grand larceny, and second-degree strangulation. Servedio was also indicted for several misdemeanor charges: first-degree harassment, second-degree aggravated harassment, second-degree menacing and torturing and injuring an animal. If Mr. Servedio goes to trial and is able to prove his innocence of the charges pressed against him, then he is a free man and all charges get dropped. Yet, if Mr. Servedio

Read More
1082 Words | 5 Pages

The landmark Supreme Court case Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) ruled that the 6th amendment obligated federal and state government to provide an attorney to anyone who could not afford one. Gideon v Wainwright ruled in favor of public defenders to create a mechanism which limited the government’s power by having them prove their convictions beyond a reasonable doubt. Currently, the Supreme Court ruling has created enormous caseloads that many busy courts struggle to handle. As a solution to the problems of high caseloads, plea bargaining has become the primary method of closing cases. Although achieving greater efficiency for the criminal justice is necessary, overly utilizing plea bargains weakens the criminal justice as it fails to reinforce the principles established in Gideon v Wainwright by foregoing trials.

Read More
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

Read More
255 Words | 2 Pages

There are many issues associated with plea bargaining. The accused could benefit with the possibility of a reduced or combined charges, reduced attorney fees, and the chance of a reduced or shorter sentence that may be imposed by going to trial. Plea bargaining can also give the prosecutors the ability to convict the accused even if they have a weak case and there is question whether or not they can get a conviction. It also will save time and resources necessary for trial. This will apply to defense attorneys as well, they may be unsure of their ability to get an acquittal for their client; however, in some cases the accused many know in his heart that he is innocent and want to go to trial.

Read More
998 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout the United States the prisons are overcrowded with juvenile and adult prisoners. This is a direct effect stemming from backlogging issues; overly compiled cases waiting processing through the criminal courts. The legal system of Bronx criminal courts are “among the most backlogged in the in the county “(Gonnerman, 4). Consequently, the prisoners suffer greatly while waiting to exercise their right to a speedy trial. In case of Khalief Browder the right to a speedy trial followed three years after his incarceration.

Read More
978 Words | 4 Pages

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

Read More
1857 Words | 8 Pages

Among the more controversial decisions issued by the trial judge’s the former Alberta MP Rahim Jaffer was being charged on cocaine possession and drunk-driving charges the plea bargain or charge bargain cases have frequently excited outrage and dissatisfaction with respect to casualties and puzzlement from those in common law nation where such activities are rare' Typically in such cases the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) suggests a reduced punishment on a diminished arrangement of charges to the Trial Chamber in return for a liable plea and some level of participation by the litigant (Defendant). Furthermore the case of Rahim Jaffer was resolved with a plea-bargain agreement. Plea-bargain can appear as a sentence diminishment, a withdrawal

Read More
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.

Read More
799 Words | 4 Pages

Plea bargaining is essential to the efficient function of the criminal justice system, where such agreements can conserve judicial and prosecutorial resources and offer defendants alternatives to trial. Plea agreements accomplish this by allowing defendants to plead guilty in exchange for certain benefits, which then reduces the amount of cases going to court. When fewer cases go to trial, resources can be allocated so that more serious cases can be tried in court, while lesser offenses can be resolved quickly through a plea, allowing often overworked judges and prosecutors to devote less time to individual cases, and complete more cases within a given time period. In contrast, if all cases went to court it would be infeasible to devote

Read More
534 Words | 3 Pages

PLEA BARGAINING Plea bargaining is a process of negotiation and results in a plea agreement between the defendant and the prosecutor for lesser charges. Basically, plea bargaining circumvents the trial process by evading more serious charges. About 97% of federal cases and 94% of state cases are disposed of by this method without ever going to trial. There can be advantages and disadvantages to this.

Read More
1013 Words | 5 Pages

Deferred Prosecution Agreements and Justice Mirta Fuentes Dr. Steven Minard Law, Ethics, and Justice JUS 603 X Q1406 Southern New Hampshire University 01 November 2015 Abstract

Read More
1485 Words | 6 Pages

Plea bargains are growing to resolve many cases. (Shetokas, 2014) According to the legal dictionary the sixth amendment to the U.S. Constitution affords criminal defendants seven discrete personal liberties: (1) the right to a Speedy Trial; (2) a public trial is allowed (3) have the right to have a fair jury; (4) knowledge of charges that are pending; (5) being able to cross-examine and confront the eyewitness; (6) the right to compel favorable witnesses to testify at trial through the subpoena power of the judiciary; and (7) legal rights to have an attorney. ( legaldictionary). With the fourteen

Read More
1112 Words | 5 Pages

The sad truth behind the justice system today is that if the defendant doesn’t have money, they have little to no hope of getting through their cases free or in a timely fashion. As people are being stored in jail, valuable money is being wasted. The pretrial services established to cut down on overpopulation are not being used efficiently. Although the justice system is still a work in progress, guidelines have not been established in crucial areas allowing judges to throw bonds at defendants like tennis balls with no specific

Read More
987 Words | 4 Pages

The United States criminal justice system is riddled with cases of many varieties. Some have obvious outcomes while others warrant more detailed analysis. However, some cases go beyond the court into other courts, where they are decided, such as Jackson versus Hobbs in 2012. The courts try to lighten the load of cases they have by offering plea bargaining, an agreement among a defendant and a prosecutor in which the defendant pleads guilty to a charge that is less severe than what he or she is initially charged for in the hopes that clemency will be administered. Sometimes, however, people accused of a crime are completely innocent, and it is not until technology is released, such as DNA testing, decades later that these people are proved to

Read More
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.

Read More

More about Essay Against Plea Bargaining

Related Topics

Open Document