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Pros And Cons Of Plea Bargaining

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A topic such as a plea bargain has many supporters and opponents. Because "plea bargaining is responsible for 97 percent of federal felony convictions" (Lat), it is an essential topic to research and discover whether or not it should remain in place and the impact it has already had on the judicial system. But first, what is "plea bargaining?" Plea bargaining is when a defendant is at risk of high sentencing or punishment but is faced "with an opportunity to plead guilty to a lesser charge or the original charge with less than the maximum sentence" (Dever). The charge given to the defendant, in theory, limits the penalties faced if the defendant decides to go to trial. Even though being found innocent is the best possible outcome for someone …show more content…

Those who support plea bargaining say the greatest benefit of plea bargaining "is the savings in time and expense to the parties, the court, and the public" (Plea Bargaining). Another benefit claimed by those who are in favor of plea bargaining is "that docket pressures are too great and that prosecutors lack the time to pursue all indictments because there are simply too many" (Dever). Plea bargains aren’t perfect, though. In addition to these advantages, there are exploitations in the process that usually harm the defendant. The opponents of plea bargaining state that "the process may result in waivers by defendants of their constitutional rights, unequal representation by counsel, the threat of unequal sentencing, and the possibility that guilty pleas will be entered by innocent defendants" (Plea Bargaining). With all this being said, plea bargaining isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, regardless of whether "some plea bargains are unfair, but a fair plea agreement is constitutionally sound" (Lat). Because it's important to the criminal justice system, plea bargaining is here to stay, but that doesn’t mean it can’t and shouldn’t be changed for the betterment of all …show more content…

If prosecutors were given less power, judges and defendants would be able to achieve "more of a balance of power among all legal participants" (Devers). Furthermore, many states have already implemented multiple diversion programs; "these programs remove less serious criminal matters from the full, formal procedures of the justice system" (Law). People who choose to participate in these programs have a better chance of completing their probation and having their charges

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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.

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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.

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Defendants asked for leniency and the prosecutor offers a deal and they take it because they are tired of sitting in jail, but few realize that by taking

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372 Words | 2 Pages

Plea bargain is an ethical issue stated in the documentary Plea bargain. The plea bargain documentary explains how pleading guilty in a plea bargain is a way to get a reduced sentence or get out free of a charge. At times taking the plea bargain might not be the best option but sometimes it’s the only choice. According to the prongs of deontological perspective, pleading guilty is a solution to be let out free, a reduced charge and dismissed a charge off.

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1600 Words | 7 Pages

Legally, there is no valid answer to that question, a fact, which is demonstrated by the following quote from Bordenkircher. “[W]hatever might be the situation in an ideal world, the fact is that the guilty plea and the often concomitant plea bargain are important components of this country's criminal justice system.” In other words, the legal system depends on plea bargaining and plea bargaining depends on the ability of prosecutors to threaten defendants. Consequently, the Court’s reasoning is not based on a legal foundation, but a practical one. Regardless of how essential plea bargaining may be to the functioning of the judicial system, “implementation of a strategy calculated solely to deter the exercise of constitutional rights is not a constitutionally permissible exercise of discretion” There are many practices which would make the criminal justice system function more efficiently.

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1080 Words | 5 Pages

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

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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.

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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.

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978 Words | 4 Pages

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.

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In our country, the judicial system, being fair and powerful is still very slow. It has always been very crowded. Since the courts are over crowded, prosecutor’s case-loads are over loaded and defendants wants to save time and money, as the result of which an informal and easy way of pre-trail bargaining came into play. Its is known as Plea-Bargaining. Plea Bargaining is defined as the agreement between the prosecutor and the defendant, whereby the defendant agrees to his or her guilt of crime that has been committed in return for some concession from the prosecutor.

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The courts have made few promises in which the prosecutor are required to keep the assurance of the agreement once it has been reached. the agreement should make sure that the defendants are aware of the consequences and that the pleas are made of ones own free will. Because it is less expensive and time consuming than a full scale trial, especially a jury trial, prosecutors can prosecute more people, be more productive in processing cases, and more effective in obtaining convictions through a guilty plea. Based on this efficient, “assembly line” type of justice system, the government can add more crimes to the criminal code so that the citizens’ life is even more controlled and regulated. Since pleading guilty eliminates the jury that would be impaneled for a full scale trial, judges, but especially prosecutors, gain much greater power over the conduct of the case, more control over the outcome of criminal cases, and are therefore more able to make defendants “offers that they cannot

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591 Words | 3 Pages

Plea bargaining, synonym to the plea agreement as a number would call it, is an agreement in a criminal case between a prosecutor and a defendant in a case, whereby the defendant complies to plead guilty to a specific charge and in return the prosecutor agrees to give the defendant some privilege. The defendant could plead guilty to a less serious charge or just to one of the many charges in exchange of dismissal for other charges. There are different types of bargaining such as plea, count, charge, and sentence bargaining. However, there is a contrast between charge bargaining and sentence bargaining. In charge bargaining, the defendant pleads guilty to a less serious case than the initial charge while in sentence bargaining, the defendant agrees to plead guilty acknowledging in advance what verdict will be given.

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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.

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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

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331 Words | 2 Pages

• 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.

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