Is Plea Bargaining Unconstitutional?

Plea bargaining may have advantages in America’s and Canada’s Justice System, but it also proposes an advantage for the accused criminal. It gives the defendant the opportunity to reduce sentence and provide a better, more comfortable stay in correctional facilities. It gives the opportunity for guilty criminals, who know a guilty sentence will be there if facing a jury, to plead guilty to the case for one’s own benefits. Rather than spending time presenting a losing case in front of a judge and jury, and losing plenty of money in court fees, the case can be wrapped up in a matter of agreement. Guilty defendants seem to be in a win-win situation and can use plea bargaining as a total advantage.

More than 90 percent of criminal convictions come from negotiated pleas, also known as, plea bargaining. Plea bargains are used every day at both the federal and state court level. They certainly have their “proponents” as well as their “opponents”. A plea bargain basically is any agreement in a criminal case between the prosecutor and defendant whereby the defendant agrees to plead guilty to a particular charge in return for some concession from the prosecutor. That agreement is usually in the form of a defendant pleading guilty to a “lesser” crime with a reduced sentence in return for the prosecuting authority not having to expend the time, energy, expense and manpower in seeking a conviction in a trial of a more serious charge. An evaluation of the evidence against the defendant is usually a significant factor by the prosecutor in determining whether or not a plea bargain should be offered. If the prosecutor’s case is strong, the chances of a plea bargain being offered to the defendant are lessened. While at the same time, if the prosecutor feels that his evidence is on the weaker side, the probability of a plea bargain being offered is enhanced.

The criminal justice system implies that we’re judging based on conditions and social stance of whether or not some acts of crimes are excusable or not, such as murder out of self-defense. The criminal justice system focuses on

Ms. Bowen states in her article that all authors reviewed agree that, “plea bargaining under an imbalanced system does not achieve justice, much less arrive at something that resembles empirical or legal truth, institutionalized plea bargaining best resembles the criminal justice system’s

Plea bargaining is when the defendant and prosecutor negotiate an agreement between each other where the defendant pleas guilty to reduced charges.

Plea bargaining has become an essential part of our criminal justice system. A vast majority of criminal cases in the United States are resolved by plea bargaining. Despite the rights that an accused has under the US Constitution, many will still accept a plea bargain. You are presumed innocent until guilt is proven beyond a reasonable doubt, the right to a trial by jury and to have an impartial judge. Even though you have these rights under the Constitution very few defendants are choosing to use them, instead relying on a plea bargain deal to be

According to Timothy Sandefur’s In Defense of Plea Bargaining article, “a plea bargain is a contract with the state. The defense agrees to plead guilty to a lesser crime and receive a lesser sentence, rather than go to trial on a more severe charge where he faces the possibility of a harsher sentence.” We are also told in The New York Times Article; Federal Law on Sentencing is Unjust, Judge Rules that “about 97 percent of federal criminal convictions nationwide were the result of plea bargains.”

Throughout the years, the plea bargain has been repeatedly criticized. Not only has the plea bargain been criticized, but some criticisms go to the extent of deeming it unconstitutional. The plea bargain is sometimes regarded as unconstitutional for supposedly forcing accused citizens to admit guilt. This statement is without question not true. The citizen is allowed to deny the plea bargain unconditionally.

In this paper, I will discuss what is plea bargaining, the benefits, controversy, requirements, and roles of actors. Plea bargaining Is an agreement between a defendant and a prosecutor, in which the defendant agrees to plead guilty in exchange for an agreement by the prosecutor to drop one or more serious charges, reduce the charge to a less offense, or recommend to the judge a specific sentence. The benefits of plea bargaining are the following.

Innocent people are being accused of crimes and confronted with these plea bargains that only offer two very difficult choices, guilty or innocent. People are then intimidated by the prosecutor’s list of multiple charges and lengthy sentences which creates fear in many individuals, especially those who are ignorant of the law. This fear coerces defendants to plead guilty because they want to get out as quickly as possible and put this behind them. It is this coercion that creates the controversy in plea bargains. These deals were initially meant to speed up the court process while cutting offenders some slack. But they have now turned into a quick method for the prosecutor to secure convictions resulting in the spread of

Plea bargain provides that flexibility necessary to make adjustments and produce substantive justice (Neubauer qtd. in McCoy 325).

The plea bargaining systems can be crooked since the amount of jail time can easily be reduced in order to satisfy the state in winning the case, but does that actually mean that justice was served for the public. The public's perception of plea bargaining is that it causes a unfair decision to automatically be able to sway the criminal justice system to easily reduce the amount of time or to just drop the trial and not push for the maximum prison sentence available based on the

A plea bargain (“offer”) is an agreement in a criminal case whereby the prosecuting agency may offer the defendant the opportunity to plead guilty, usually to a lesser charge or to the original criminal charge with a proposal of a lighter than the maximum sentence. This opportunity allows defendants to avoid the risk of a conviction at trial on a more serious charge. This also allows all involved parties to keep the court’s calendars light without exhausting resources of a court, potential public defenders, and prosecutors who are all salaried for by the expense of tax payers. If every case in the criminal justice system went to trial, the courts would be so overloaded that they would effectively be shut down.

By using Sanborns paper as a reference, it shows us that the concept of plea bargaining we use today has only been around for about 50 years. In these past 50 years, although still relatively new, plea bargaining has become such an incremental part in the court system. Within the last few years ir has especially picked up momentum. According to the Bureau of Justice statistics in 2003, scholars have drawn the conclusion that 90-95% of all trials were fixed by the process of plea bargaining (Devers, 2011). At that rate, it is not hard to imagine that eventually almost all of our court procedures will be carried out through this process. To put it into perspective, this means that 5% of all court cases actually go onto trial. Typically, plea bargaining is a relatively private process, but as always this is ever changing. Victims’ rights groups are starting to become recognized more and more, which leads to more input being given in the plea bargain process. How this affects the plea process is simple, more input means less flexible sentencing which can usually stall the negotiating process, prolonging an agreement between the two parties. The theory of plea bargaining is constantly shifting, with many viewers constantly trying to decrease the use of it.

It has been understood that many successful criminal prosecutions in the United States end not with jury trial, rather yet plea bargain. Plea bargains are agreements between prosecutor and defendant, where the defendant agrees to plead guilty in order to receive a lesser offence or sentence. “The mode of plea-bargaining is most closely associated with high volume, low-stakes cases like misdemeanors and low grade felonies, as well as cases in which the prosecutor and defense lawyer have a good relationship and a long history of past dealings,”(O’Hear,2008). Throughout the following report I will be creating a scenario as a prosecutor proposing a plea offer alongside with a role of defense counsel and preparing a counteroffer