ipl-logo

Pros And Cons Of Plea Bargaining

747 Words3 Pages

Plea Bargaining is the most effective tool of prosecutors to minimize the time required to obtain convictions. Around ninety percent of cases are concluded using plea bargaining. (Barkan and Bryjack, Page 2) This process moves cases through the system quickly and prevents the need to add more judges and court systems if these cases were to go to trial. (Barkan and Bryjack, Page 249) From the judge and prosecutors point of view, this is a necessary and effective method of managing caseloads. Opponents to the high use of this procedure cite the issue that it removes the public and the jury from the justice system, it is based on coercion, and it understates true crime statistics when criminals plead guilty to lesser crimes. Additionally, innocent people may plead guilty from fear they will be convicted by a jury and face a long jail sentence. (Barkan and Bryjack, Page 250-252) …show more content…

The perception is that criminals receive less punishment than they deserve in order to facility the process. However, other individuals will accept a more significant plea when they feel overwhelmed by the system and fear incarceration from a jury trial. Those accused of crimes who have limited resources, a questionable past, or a history of criminal behavior will see the plea bargain as the less of two evils. (Rakoff) Many victims often feel cheated by the system and victimized again. This can lead to a desire for vengeance rather than justice. (Rosenbaum, Page 266) A real life example was when the father of an abused child, chose to shoot and kill the perpetrator as he was being returned for justice. (Rosenbaum, Page 267) Victims may be unhappy with the punishment prescribed by law and reducing that punishment to a lesser charge can be infuriating. Victims may have no knowledge of the law, the strength of the case, and may allow rage and vindictiveness/revenge override common

Show More
Related

Annotated Bibliography Deal Frees West Memphis Three

550 Words | 3 Pages

The author looks at the time period that the three were released and discusses the reason for their release, which is Alford plea. In this case, the defendant is voluntarily forced to plead guilty while still proclaiming his or her innocence. The author also looks at the evidence and ends up concluding that that there was little evidence that linked the defendants to the murder. In addition, the author criticizes the state’s government for forcing the men to plead guilty. Using another case, the author looks into this matter by examining the flaws related to the Alford’s plea.

Read More

Example Of Larry Servedio Case

619 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More

Is Plea Bargaining Ethical Analysis

721 Words | 3 Pages

Plea bargaining is an unethical practice because it can force innocent men to plead guilty, defense lawyers often can't see the evidence in time to advise their client, and it lets criminals get away with a lighter sentence than they should. The innocent pleading guilty The concept of an innocent man pleading guilty was far fetched in 19941. Which is truly surprising.

Read More

Robert Agnew's Strain Theory In Scarace

1000 Words | 4 Pages

The first theory I will be explaining is Rational Choice Theory. Cornish and Clarke argue that “offenders are rational people who seek to maximize their pleasure and minimize their pain.” (Cullen, 2015 pg. 438)

Read More

The Pros And Cons Of Plea Bargaining

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

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

Role Of Plea Bargaining In Criminal Justice

352 Words | 2 Pages

• Plea-bargaining weakens the criminal justice system with the concept that if all cases went to trial the court system would be unable to support the workload. This is a factor that can be disputed by jurisdictions that have ban plea bargaining and continued to operate appropriately. Plea-bargaining is known as the agreement in a criminal court proceeding that is made between a defendant and a prosecutor. Plea bargains typically involve a lesser sentence in return for an omission of wrongdoing. Plea bargains do not forsake the criminal justice system, however they do allow for a speedy exit strategy for prosecutors.

Read More

Pros And Cons Of Plea Bargain

480 Words | 2 Pages

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.

Read More

The Consequences Of The Plea Bargain

186 Words | 1 Pages

When the jury trial process is replaced with plea negotiations, we lose trust and reliability in the system. When we give efficiency that the plea bargain has provided power, it comes at a substantial cost. People who are indeed innocent of the crimes they were convicted have now been influenced into pleading guilty for the sake of efficiency. Not to mention the collateral consequences that accompany a person when they plead out. It also undermines the reliability of convictions in general (Gilchrist, 2011).

Read More

The Pros And Cons Of Wrongful Conviction

949 Words | 4 Pages

People plead guilty for crimes that are not committed by them to avoid trial, but by doing so the right decision wasn’t made.

Read More

Impact Of Plea Bargaining On The Criminal Justice System

611 Words | 3 Pages

In the criminal justice system there are is a large amount of criminal cases. The court system wants to get rid of these cases as quickly as possible for maximum efficiency. That is where plea bargaining comes in to play. It helps the court

Read More

Negative Consequences Of Plea Barging

175 Words | 1 Pages

Plea barging is an important part of the admistration of justice because it saves time and makes the process quicker it also gives the chance for the defendant to plea guilty or not guilty. I would improve plea bargain by being fair with the people serving justice, no person should go thru what the two women went thru in the video. Both women had an attorney who they trusted the attorney only spoke to the judge and convinced both women to plea guilty. I believe attorneys should be fair with their clients they should be treated equally not by their income. The negative consequence of plea barging is many innocent people pea guilty fear of serving jail time and the cost of probation.

Read More

Herbert Packer's The Limits Of The Criminal Sanctions

339 Words | 2 Pages

“ In this control model , the control of criminal behavior is by far the most important function of criminal justice.” (Bohm, Hailey, 2012,p.16.). Defendants are presumed to be guilty upon their arrest and resolving their cases is a major point in this model. Plea deals are used to alleviate the overcrowding in the criminal justice

Read More

Race In The Prison System Essay

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

Trial By Jury Advantages And Disadvantages

1472 Words | 6 Pages

In this paragraph, the advantages and disadvantages of trial by jury will be discussed. The main advantages are that juries introduce community values into the legal process and can influence the system (Joyce, 2013); they can achieve a sense of equity and fairness without enforcing unjust laws; in addition, juries are independent and neutral (Davies, 2015). Moreover, they guarantee participation from the public in a democratic institution (Hostettler, 2004), and represent the population thanks to the randomness with which jurors are decided (Davies, 2015). On the other hand, the most important disadvantages are that jurors have no prior contact with the courts, no training (Hostettler, 2004) and therefore they lack knowledge of law, courtroom proceedings (Joyce, 2013), and lack of ability to understand the legal directions (Thomas, 2010). Moreover, they must face evidence which is highly technical (Hostettler, 2004).

Read More

More about Pros And Cons Of Plea Bargaining

Related Topics

Open Document