Plea Bargaining Research Paper

It all starts with backed up courtrooms. A man is charged with killing another man. There is no evidence to convict this man of these charges. This leads the prosecutors to work out a plea-bargain. The pressure of other cases and the need for a guilty charge is what leads plea-bargaining to happen more every year. As a result many criminals get off easy and in return prosecutors look good for winning the case.

Around 90% of all cases are resolved in a plea bargain. A plea bargain is when a prosecutor offers the defendant a lesser sentence if they plead guilty. A bargain will often be accepted if the defendant does not think they can win the case or does not have any compelling evidence. Plea bargains do not happen in court rooms. As depicted in the movie, plea bargaining can happen anywhere. For example, at around the 50-minute mark, Jack Ross offers Daniel Kaffee a plea of involuntary manslaughter outside the basketball court. Plea bargaining is one of the few court actions that do not happen in a court room.

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.”

But while this revelation complicates and adds relevance to Rakoff's topic, he also asks “What's wrong with that?” – a variation of “so what?” In answer to this question, he says that plea bargains are “secret negotiations” that “invite[] arbitrary results.” Both innocent and guilty defendants, in other words, are placed in the same pot, and the goal is to achieve the appearance of fairness, not the realization of it. Considering ninety-seven percent of federal convictions are the results of guilty pleas (Rakoff), that is a haunting injustice.

An agreement made in a criminal case between a prosecutor and its defendant, before reaching a trial is a plea bargain. The prosecutor offers an opportunity to the defendant to plead guilty. By agreeing to plead guilty to a crime the defendant would in exchange get a prosecutor’s promise to convince the judge to reduce the sentence. It is really impossible to predict what a jury is going to decide in a trial. I personally think that plea bargaining is being used as an easy way out; instead of having the person who committed the crime pay for what they did by serving the whole time. By managing a plea bargain the terms can sometimes be used to include pondering on how it works and who it can help.

Rebecca, I agree with your response regarding plea bargaining. I don’t believe plea bargaining is wrong, because one of the goals of the judicial system is to ensure justice is served. I feel as though plea bargaining works best for small cases, such as theft, where a victim may or may not have been involved in the crime itself. As for major cases, I feel as though the defendant shouldn’t be pressured into pleading guilty for a lighter sentence. The accused should exercise their constitutional rights and remain innocent until proven guilty. Although this may be time consuming and costly, I believe citizens in the community and possibly the victim may feel as though justice was served after going through the judicial process. Reason being is

Those involved in the plea bargaining process include: the Government, the defendant, the victim, and the Judges. The Government holds an interest because the judicial system is one of the three branches, it would be a travesty if the judicial system stopped caring about its own courts. The defendant has a vested interest in the proceedings because the result will affect the rest of his/her life. It is ultimately the defendant's choice to plead guilty. On the opposite side of the spectrum the victim, or the victim's family, wants justice to be served. In some state courts the victim is allowed to directly take part in the plea negotiations, however this is also a point of debate. As for the judges, it is their responsibility to finalize and accept the plea deal, or reject it if it is not satisfactory or violates a statute. Plea bargaining has become an integral aspect of the criminal justice system, however, despite the popularity of its use it is imperative that it be under constant scrutiny and evolution. With that in mind there are three programs that will be evaluated; first the practices of the federal courts; second a smaller look at queens district, New York; and finally a closer inspection of a former Alaskan

Additionally, the last topic for discussion regarding negatives and plea-bargaining is the pressure crown attorneys put on defendants into accepting plea deals. The criminal justice system includes complex procedures that many people who have not had experience within the system find confusing. This may cause trouble for the defendant who is being offered a deal. Defendants may feel pressured as shown in Smith (1986) study, “ a series of threats and promises by legal officials that induce defendants to forfeit many of their legal rights and plead guilty” (p. 949). As mentioned before, every person is innocent until proven guilty and offered a fair trial to do so.

Plea bargaining has become the way the American justice system operates. Prior to plea bargaining jury courts were mostly run by the judge and the prosecutor. In this particular setting the defendant defended himself and spoke directly to the jurors. The prosecuting attorney, if there was one needed, presented the case and the judge ensured procedural protocols were followed (Siegel, Schmalleger, & Worrall, 2015, p. 310). Plea bargaining is known as far back as the nineteenth century, of course not as depth as today’s plea bargaining.

No one likes to be incarcerated in a six-by-eight-foot room for twenty-three hours of the day. Rather than having the defendant plead guilty, many cases around the U.S. have plea bargaining as a form of negotiation between the "defendant, prosecutor, and defense counsel on behalf of the interests involved" (Schmalleger 2016). It has quickened the judicial system by having cases no longer lead to trial and helps the prosecutor and the defendant agree to a guilty plea if the prosecutor is unsure of a win. Plea bargaining helps the courts run smoothly when they have a large amount of work. Considering the type of defendant, plea bargaining often times comes with conditions where the defendant helps investigators or other law enforcement agencies

In many cases like the previous the influence of the attorney and the means of counsel is a big factor in the accepting or declining of a plea deal. The Sixth amendment right, given to all who inhabit this country is the right to counsel is in many sense inadequate. The juvenile offenders are assigned an attorney; an attorney that they believe has their best wishes at mind. Many are unaware that the attorney they may receive has 4 times more than the federally recommended caseload for a defender. (Polakow-Suransky, 2002) The time the juvenile offenders spend with their attorney is average 10 to 12 minutes. After their first 10 to 12 minute counsel meeting more than 50% of juvenile offenders please guilty for their plea deals. A large issue is the defense these juveniles are receiving. The defenders are often excruciatingly over worked and vastly underpaid. Over time this leads to the lack of commitment and devotion for the cases of criminal court. The defenders spend little time even concerning themselves with the youth’s or their crimes and there is very little a teenager with no means of income can do about it. The lack of money in juvenile law seems to do the opposite of push juvenile defenders to do anything beyond the baseline. The results of these conditions are the substantial number of juveniles who sign or give away their rights with barley any counsel. The juvenile system is basically taking every with two alternatives in mind, getting them out or getting them in.

The current judicial system allows prosecutors and the defense to plea bargain cases, which they negotiate for the person who is accused of a crime and pleads guilty. Their charges or sentence is lessened for their guilty plea even though the person is innocent.

Prosecutors may use plea bargaining as means to advance their case against a co-defendant. They may accept a plea bargain arrangement from one defendant in return for damaging testimony against another. This way, they are assured of at least one conviction even if it’s a lesser charge with the enhanced chances of captivating a conviction against the second defendant.

Charge bargaining, sentence bargaining, and count bargaining. Charge bargaining is a plea for a reduction in the charges, sentence bargaining is a plea for a lighter sentence, and count bargaining is a plea in which the number of chargers a person is being charged with can be lowered (Meyer & Grant, 2003). Those accused of a crime can charge bargain to have a felony dropped to a misdemeanor. An accused can sentence bargain to have their jail sentence reduced if they plead guilty to the charge and avoid a trial. Those accused of multiple crimes such as theft, assault, and possession of an illegal firearm, can plea bargain to have two of the three crimes dropped if they plead guilty to one of them, which would result in less time spent in jail if any jail time was even given. This gives opportunity to free up the court rooms for more severe crimes that need to be tried in the

Over 90% of convictions are from negotiated guilty pleas. They help avoid court and a lot of paperwork lawyers may have to do which gives them more time to focus on cases that are bigger and more serious. In the movie, Captain West stated to Lt. Commander Galloway, “…I’m sure it’ll boil down to a five-minute plea bargain and a week’s worth of paper work.” No one expected the case to make it to court. Plea bargaining does not take place in a court room; it can take place at a restaurant, a game, the lawyers can meet at their houses, and many other places. Lieutenant Kaffee made plea deals while he was playing baseball. Since many cases get plea deals many lawyers do not see the court room often. Forty-four plea bargains were done by Lt. Kaffee in nine months and he had not once seen the inside of a courtroom until the case that takes place in the movie. Even though plea deals have its advantages, problems can arise from it such as the defendants not wanting a deal, one defendant in the movie did not want one,