Plea Bargaining In Court Cases
The upside of accepting a plea deal usually involves the defendant's pleading guilty to a lesser charge, or to only one of several charges. The agreements allow prosecutors to turn their attention and resources on other cases, and reduce the number of trials that judges need to attend. Though by accepting a plea deal one pleads guilty to one charge which usually results on your record forever because you plead guilty and didn't take your chance of proving your innocence by going to trial. For example if Larry Servedio did not want to accept his plea deal of two consecutive state prison terms of seven-and-a-half years by pleading guilty to two felony counts of second-degree kidnapping and go to trial he would face the possibility of losing the case and be sentenced to longer terms in prison. For the prosecution it saves them time but most important it helps the judges not overcrowd prisons by sentencing criminals to short terms which usually keeps them within their county lines.
Plea bargain is an agreement between the prosecutor and defendant where the prosecutor offers the accused to plead guilty to a lesser sentence or to only one of several charges without going to court. What percentage of cases in Harris County are the result of a plea bargain?
MILLERSBURG — Despite a plea for leniency expressed by the victim, a Sugarcreek man was unable to overcome a long history of criminal convictions and a bond violation when a Holmes County judge on Wednesday sentenced him to prison for making unwanted phone calls and threats to several members of a family over a period of months. David Lamar Schrock, 43, of 2578 State Route 39, previously pleaded guilty in Holmes County Common Pleas Court to two counts of telephone harassment and one count of menacing by stalking. In exchange for his guilty plea, the state agreed to dismiss two additional counts of telephone harassment and three counts of menacing by stalking. The charges are made more serious because Schrock was convicted, in January 2016,
IN THE HEALTH CARE ALTERNATIVE RESOLUTION OFFICE OF FLORIDA NORTHCHASE NORTH PARCEL 45 COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION, INC., a Florida not-for-profit corporation, Claimant, -vs- LINDSEY RICHMOND, SPTC 480 Central Region Road Suit B-3 Fort Myers, FL 32666 Defendant Healthcare Provider __________________________________ FACTS 1. The claimant is a resident of the State of Florida and all services were given to her by the Defendant in the State of Florida. 2. The Defendant is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor that is licensed by the State of Florida and regularly continue engaging in the practice of psychotherapy. Defendant sustains her principle office at 480 Central Region Road, Suite B-3, Fort Myers, Florida 32666.
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
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
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 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.
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 costs of capital murder trials are more expensive than other murder trials for many of reasons. Often in murder trials where the death penalty is not being sought, the case never goes to trial and the offender pleads to a lesser degree of murder such as second degree murder or manslaughter. Depending on the location in the country, a prosecutor may be swayed politically or by the victim’s family to agree to life in prison without the possibility of parole. What makes a capital murder trial so expensive is “the high cost of crime scene investigations, pretrial preparations and motions, expert witness investigations, jury selection, and heightened death row security and maintenance costs” (Schmalleger & Smykla, 2015, p. 493). The overall
Plea-bargaining dominates the American criminal justice system by offering a reduced sentence to those who stand accused of a crime in exchange for the accused pleading guilty or to a lesser charge and waiving the right to trial. The problem with plea-bargaining is that it lays a heavy burden on the accused while theoretically reducing the burden carried by prosecutors and the court system. Plea-bargaining has trickled its way into the American criminal justice system disguised as a win-win for accused criminals and prosecutors but has weakened the justice system by allowing prosecutors to score guilty pleas from vulnerable individuals and allowing serious criminal offenders walk on lesser charges. Plea-bargaining severely undermines the criminal
People plead guilty for crimes that are not committed by them to avoid trial, but by doing so the right decision wasn’t made.
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
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.
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