ipl-logo

Plea Bargain Essay

1427 Words6 Pages

Topic 1: Explain how discretion is used in the court system
• What power over the plea-bargaining process does the prosecutor have? What power over the plea bargain does the defense attorney have? How does the judge's discretion come into play?
The prosecutor is the only member of the courtroom who has the option of offering a plea bargain to the defendant or refusing to offer a plea bargain. The defense attorney has the ability to advise his/her client to accept or refuse the plea bargain; however, the defense attorney cannot make this decision for their client. The client ultimately has the ability to refuse to accept a plea bargain if offered. The judge reviews any plea bargains that are offered and determines if they are too harsh or too …show more content…

To spend time on a case that is a futile effort to convict waste taxpayers’ money and time that could be spent on seeking justice on other cases. Another element that influences the prosecutor’s discretionary decision is mitigation provided by the defense such as, in the Baxter case. To me all of these things allow for justice to be served. On the contrary, public opinion of the prosecutor’s office also influences decisions; however, I feel like this is at conflict with justice. As stated in Proverbs 106:3, “happy are those who observe justice, who do righteousness at all times” (New Revised Standard Version). Another conflict with justice is time management. While it is an evil necessity to not prosecute some cases in order to allow for an efficient courtroom, this may prevent justice from being served. The final influence that conflicts with justice is the relationship between prosecutors, defense attorneys and the judge. It is necessary that everyone be able to work together, but the mentality of “helping” each other or remaining in favor does not sit well with me. It is concerning to think a prosecutor may lessen a charge or pursue a case more aggressively based upon the opinion/feelings of the defense or

Show More
Related

Pros And Cons Of Gideon Vs Wainwright

1082 Words | 5 Pages

Criminal trials are not perfect, but by requiring evidence beyond a reasonable doubt, they can prevent several miscarriages of justice. Considering that innocent individuals may arrive at trial for misidentification, police misconduct or simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time, these individuals are at a disadvantage since by being offered plea deals they avoid trial and avoid the burden of “ beyond a reasonable doubt,” required to be pronounced guilty. Thus, in a CJ system saturated with cases, plea bargains become a mechanism for prosecutors and defense attorneys to bypass trials. For defendants, the fear of incarceration and the unpredictability of juries or judges create the conditions of coercion that might persuade defendants to prefer plea deals over

Read More

Essay On Duke Lacrosse

680 Words | 3 Pages

Nifong and the Duke Lacrosse case highlight several key institutional failures of the justice system in regards to prosecutorial discretion, prosecutor accountability, and the prosecutors dilemma. Prosecutors are considered by many to be the most powerful actors in the courtroom proceedings as they follow the case from the time of arrest to the sentencing. Prosecutors have a lot of discretion in the justice process as they are the ones who decide: Do I prosecute? Who do I prosecute?

Read More

The Pros And Cons Of Plea Bargaining

652 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More

Pros And Cons Of Plea Bargain

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

How Did Michael Morton Achieve Justice

802 Words | 4 Pages

¨In matters of truth or justice, there is no difference between large and small problems, for issues concerning the treatment of people are all the same¨-Albert Einstein. The justice system, however, is imbibed with many problems. We can, however, try to lessen these problems with achieving justice as we identified some faults of in achieving justice of all and the justice system. One problem with achieving justice is people are sometimes guilty until proven innocent like when Charlie was immediately thought of as guilty without a chance to prove his innocence. Another problem imbibed in our justice system is innocent people as sometimes convicted like Michael Morton.

Read More

Case Study: Strickland V. Washington

774 Words | 4 Pages

The Supreme Court's decision in Strickland v. Washington provided for fairness in the judicial process in three main ways. First and foremost, the Court determined that any claim of ineffectiveness of counsel must be judged on whether the entire trial should be considered unjust because the counsel’s conduct was so poor that it failed to allow for the proper application of the judicial process. Next, the Court provided a standard two part test for determining when a defendant's Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel is violated by the inadequate performance of counsel. Lastly, it protected the legal process from continual and frivolous claims for relief when defendants lose their criminal cases. By examining whether the entire trial is to be considered unjust due to the counsel’s poor conduct safeguards the legal process and provides for fairness.

Read More

Plea Bargaining In Criminal Cases

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

Examples Of Evidence In The Crucible

807 Words | 4 Pages

Unreasonable evidence is used and justice is not served, but injustice

Read More

Brady V. Maryland Argumentative Essay

390 Words | 2 Pages

The duty of any criminal prosecutor is to seek justice. A conviction is the end of justice being served prior to sentencing; however justice cannot be served if an innocent person is found guilty. Even though the prosecutor(s) are there to represent the public and has the duty to aggressively pursue offenders for violations of state and federal laws, they shall never lose sight or their own moral compass of their main purpose is to find the truth. In the pursuit of truth, the United States Supreme Court has developed or made rulings in reference to several principles of conduct which have to be followed by all prosecutors to assure that the accused person(s) are allowed the proper procedures and due process of the law granted by the 14th Amendment.

Read More

Essay Against Plea Bargaining

820 Words | 4 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.

Read More

The Pros And Cons Of Wrongful Conviction

1295 Words | 6 Pages

When cases are resolved hurriedly, the number of cases law enforcement is handling at once decreases and may help reduce overwhelming multi-tasking, even if the conviction is not accurate. These convictions seem like a solution, but these cases are appealed more often as the convicted person’s innocence can be proved, which leads to more overload and deeper searching into a case than was required originally. Based on estimates of wrongful convictions yet to be proved, “there are over 2.3 million

Read More

Prosecutorial Misconduct

1087 Words | 5 Pages

Instead, due process should be defined according to rules developed with reference to traditional notions of fair play and standards of professional conduct for prosecutors; outcome-determinative analysis should then be applied to prosecutorial misconduct as a harmless error test.” Due process is great way to rule case whether defendants need to be trial or punished for a particular crime. The situation would limit the action of prosecutorial misconduct because the system would have admissible information to conduct a fair trial. This type of decision is based on the due process of the cases but it does not deal with the issue because many attorneys temper with evidences, bias toward individuals or the situation of the case and still yet perform misconduct.

Read More

Prosecutorial Injustices

1623 Words | 7 Pages

Finally, there are four solutions proffered, Restoring discretionary authority to judges, “Open File” reform, Criminalization and Punishment of deliberate and serious prosecutorial misconduct, and Improved prosecutorial education. “Open File” reform would be the most important solution because it discloses all the information regarding each case. This solution can be loosely associated with Utilitarianism because by keeping an open file only good could come from exposing all parties with the evidence and facts of the

Read More

Jury System In The 19th Century

838 Words | 4 Pages

These cases have started to make the United States’ jury system look unjust. The government has tried to address the cases as best they can; but the United States may have to modify their seemingly “perfect” jury

Read More

Justice In The Film A Few Good Men

1035 Words | 5 Pages

Justice may sometimes be cruel and harsh, in being so, however, it is universal for each and every one of us and we defend our rights in the name of it. When certain violations of justice occur individual entities are charged with different cases for which they are called up on a trial. For everyone to get a fair trial, there are some aspects to the law that need to be respected. The likes are: the phenomena of the “due process”, questioning the credibility of the witnesses and the role of advocates' persistency when defending their clients. All of these, together with a great deal of other principals, have to be there for justice to be done to the whole society.

Read More

More about Plea Bargain Essay

Related Topics

Open Document