Plea Bargain: Ethical And Legal Case Study
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
This is a “Bad Deal” suggested Alexander. She explores how the lack of representation ends into a plea deal by the prosecutor in a manner of giving the accused a favor. Even though, it locks a person in to only convicting him/herself. She knows that the prosecutor has the ultimate decision to dismiss or add additional charges, which holds the key to his/her life. I agree with Alexander because the prosecutor is like the ‘god of the courts.”
Prosecutors have the power to send offenders away which allows them to make harsh decisions. They offer plea bargains to offenders which often will enable them to do time in prison. Pfaff stated that "as long as prosecutors simply use the tough laws as a bargaining chip, not real punishment, legislators can reap the political benefits of looking tough on crime while avoiding difficult financial decisions" (Pfaff, 2017, P136). Prosecutors offer a plea bargain to get rid of cases quickly and not allow offenders to go to trial because they might receive more prison
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.
Plea bargains are negotiations between the prosecutor and the criminal defendant. In this negotiation, the criminal defendant consents to pleading guilty. When the criminal defendant takes the guilty plea, he or she is able receive reductions in their charges or sentences. There are pros and cons of plea bargains, but these bargains can be doing more harm than good. Plea bargaining is a simple process but can have long term repercussions.
As an observer, it has been noted multiple times that prosecutors seek to solve a case by any means necessary. But countless times it has been found that you also will use unreliable or faulty resources without having the proper evidence and right resources in order to make a closing statement. Your desperation to solve a case in a quick and timely matter is just proof that you will take anyone’s word before checking the validity and reliability of the first time informants often times taking note of his desperation and use this in order to seek entry way into a resolution. I stand before you today and acknowledge the weight you have on your shoulders to convict and solve a case.
According to the American Bar Association, the prosecutor is an administrator of justice and advocate. In the Casey Anthony trial the prosecutor had enough evidence to charge Casey Anthony as First-Degree murder. The false statements from Casey Anthony, the investigations from law enforcement, and every evidence presented pointed out that Casey Anthony killed her daughter. The prosecutor used “forensic evidence that they say shows Anthony kept the body of her daughter, Caylee Anthony, in the trunk of her car” (Treffers, Burgess, & Burgess, 2013). Another theory was that Casey Anthony put duct tape in Caylee mouth, and suffocate her.
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 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.
• The Constitution is weakened by the excessive use of plea-bargaining to avoid a trial. Research has shown that criminal defendants who exercise their Sixth Amendment right to trail by jury are more severely punished than those who accept plea bargains (Devers, 2011, p. 2). It is assumed that plea-bargaining weakens the criminal justice system by allowing violent criminals to plea out of serious charges and putting the disadvantaged and potentially innocent or partially innocent in a position where exercising their constitutional right to a trial by jury is too risky of an option. Prosecutors are required by the state to carry the burden and prosecute the accused.
The prosecution represents the state/the victims in criminal trials. A prosecutor’s responsibilities are to be professional, seek justice, and strive for the truth. Prosecutors live up to their responsibilities by gathering evidence, collecting witness testimonies, and obtaining other information to present a case against the defendant. Throughout the movie My Cousin Vinny, Jim Trotter is the prosecuting attorney. In the entire movie he is using evidence and witness testimonies to try to get the jury to find Billy Gambini and Stan Rothenstein guilty of killing the clerk in the store.
One of the best quotes I found on the motivations behind the use of plea bargains comes from former President Jimmy Carter, in which he points out that “In many courts, plea‐bargaining serves the convenience or the judge and lawyers, not the ends of justice, because the courts lack the time to give everyone a fair trial,” (“Excerpts from Carter’s Speech to the Bar Association,” 1978). The plea bargaining system is convenient, not just. Plea bargains are not negotiated for the best interest of the defendants, but for the prosecutors and judges looking to funnel cases out of the courthouse as quickly as possible. This lack of care for the defendant obviously leads to mistakes. Eighteen percent “of known exonerees pleaded guilty to crimes they didn’t commit,” (Why Innocent People Are Pleading Guilty, 2018).
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
The Bible is a book that is filled with knowledge and truth that many people follow today. Despite all of the applicable wisdom the Bible contains, it also brings about many questions that are left unanswered to this day. The book of Genesis is filled with such questions that can make one’s head hurt if thought about for too long. One of those questions that is constantly asked and answered differently is: Who is the God of Israel in the book of Genesis? What makes this question especially difficult to answer is the fact that there are two different names for God used in Genesis as well as the fact there is more than one source used to write Genesis. With that said, throughout the book of Genesis, the God of Israel is depicted as a just,
Assignment #1 Review questions Chap. 1 p. 26: 1. A single standard of ethics cannot be applied to all criminal justice agencies. The world is too complex to legislate morality and ethics. The cultures that make up each part of the world are not the same.
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