Why Plea Bargains Should Be Taken To Trial

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.”

What is a plea bargain a person may ask? According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, a please agreement is “an agreement by which someone accused of a crime admits to a less serious crime in order to be given a less severe punishment.” (Webster Dictionary). Plea bargain is the most critical process in the criminal justice system. The Prosecutor may ask the defendant for a guilty plea in exchange for a reduced or even suspended sentence. Now do you have to take the plea bargain when the prosecutor offers it? The answer is no you don’t but you have to stand trial. There are a lot of benefits that comes with taking a plea deal. One is t makes the cases goes by faster. Also is that the defendant may get their sentence reduced or sometimes even

Guilty pleas waive those rights, and the state is free to use even extortionate threats to induce pleas” (p.235). Once, you have taken the plea deal people no longer have the rights that they are promised by the bill of rights: the right to trial. As can be seen, this promotes injustice as punishment is not dependent on how serious of a crime you commit rather how well you are able to argue with a prosecutor to attain lesser sentence...

The criminal justice system relies heavily on the plea bargain. In order for the system to work the majority of defendant's must admit guilt and agree to a plea bargain for a lesser crime or sentence. (Pollack, 2015). It helps both the prosecutor and the client to accept a plea bargain deal. While many agree of the pros in plea bargaining such as reducing which cases go to trial and high conviction rates. It is also the least costly trial method. In the US felonies are much more likely to take a plea bargain than to not. While plea bargaining causes more innocent people to plead guilty it also gives defense attorney's heavier caseloads, limited resources, and leads to over criminalization. The advantages of having a plea jury would be to give

So the trial is meant to achieve either determining guilt and issuing appropriate punishment for the crime and to prevent innocent people from being punished for a crime that they did not commit. Stephanos Bibas, a professor of Law and Criminology argues that “everyone trusted that trials remained as safety valves whenever guilt was in real doubt. The vast majority of defendants are factually and legally guilty, but surely, we assumed, those who are innocent would persist to vindicate their names at trial.” Unfortunately, because of pressures by the prosecution and fears of long, harsh sentences, “poorly informed, poorly educated, and poorly represented defendants are far from the fully informed, rational actors.” (Bibas, 2016). This means that some innocent people are taking a plea bargain for fear of greater punishment, even if they did not actually commit the crime. They have so little faith in the process of a trial working correctly that they feel it better to agree to a lesser punishment despite their innocence. Whether their lack of faith in the trial process is warranted or not, this signifies that there is something fundamentally wrong with the criminal justice

Plea bargaining helps attorneys by saving time. Plea bargaining is generally fast and efficient. It allows attorneys to focus on bigger, more “important” cases which will impact society more. This relieves pressure on attorneys by not having to go to trial. Also it can impact attorney’s salaries. In some cases, it may be in their best interest to get rid of a case quickly. “Many states impose caps on the amount of allocated to the representation of indigent clients; these amounts do not provide adequate compensation for the time and expense of bringing a case to trial” (Guidorizzi 1998). The defendant can also benefit from a plea bargain. If the defendant pleads guilty without a trial then the prosecutor can drop one or more charges, reduce the charge, or recommend a specific sentence. Lastly the victim can also benefit from plea bargaining. A plea bargain can bring closure to the victim by knowing the person who is guilty is not getting away with the crime, Also the victim will not have to worry about testifying. (Guidorizzi

Another legitimate concern of plea bargaining is that charges may be reduced for guilty individuals, who, according to their victims,

The main benefit to a judge for accepting a plea bargain is to expedite the number of cases being crossed off an often overburdened calendar. For the most part, a judge does not have time to take every case to trial. In addition, due to the crowded nature of jails today, should a criminal be convicted a judge may have no other choice but to release them depending on the nature of their crime. Therefore, a judge will often argue that plea bargains are an excellent way to avoid overcrowding problems by bypassing jail time for those who would not likely have spent much time in jail

Nicholas Muia, I completely agree with you. Plea bargaining is the best thing for the criminal justice system. It is a waste of time to take someone to trial when the prosecutor has so much evidence, such as witnesses, DNA, and finger print to convict that person. Just give the person a plea deal up front, and make it easy for the judge, the defense attorney, and the prosecutor. I do not see why some people would agree to go through the entire process instead of that. Plea bargain save time, money, and reducing on the pain that the victim is suffer because we sometimes not release that, the longer the trial last is more the victim of the case has to suffer. That is why, I support the plea

Some advantages and disadvantages of plea-bargaining: As the name suggests, a plea bargain most of times lets a offender to plea to a lesser charge, or have the prosecutor approve to demand a smaller sentence from the judge. The benefit of this to the offender is that it eliminates the danger of getting a greater sentence. The drawback is that it also removes the option of being cleared of all charges. A plea-bargain escapes trial. The advantage of this to the court and prosecutor is bigger capacity to grip cases (trials take time, and the plea-bargain lessens the quantity of time consumed), and significantly lowers budget. An advantage to the prosecution and disadvantage to the offender is that getting a plea usually lessens the skill to appeal

The viewpoint of the government in the case of a plea bargain is that a person is guilty of some part of crime for which they were arrested for and charged. Under the crime control model, the plea bargain is where the defendant agrees to accept

Kyle Graham in his article Crimes, Widgets, and Plea Bargaining: An Analysis of Charge Content, Pleas, and Trials described the process of plea bargaining as a mathematical equation used by the prosecution and defense. Both sides are analyzing the cost of trial versus the likelihood of conviction and type of conviction. However, when the defendant cannot even afford the bail bond, the prosecution is placed in an extreme advantage. The prosecutor can use the threat of high bail or long detainment, or high trial cost to manipulate the defendant to a plea bargain. “A defendant may choose to enter a guilty plea to a crime simply to avoid the financial costs of trial, even when the plea carries almost the same punishment as a conviction following trial would (Graham, p1592).” When the cost of trial is so high, the defendant may be financially ruined if the case was to go for trial. Kyle Graham in his article Crimes, Widgets, and Plea Bargaining: An Analysis of Charge Content, Pleas, and Trials states a simple explanation of why the innocent may plead

This means that the accused pleads guilty to a lower offense or a lower penalty. There are several factors that are taken into consideration when entering into plea bargaining such as to avoid further delays in the prosecution of cases, the presence of extenuating circumstance in favor of the accused, and absence or lack of witnesses, among others. Further, a plea bargain ensures that the accused faces some form of punishment regardless of available evidence especially in cases where witnesses hide in fear for their

In criminal cases an individual accused of a serious crime is rarely desirous of arguing a case to a judge only. An accused and the prosecutor negotiate a mutually satisfactory disposition of the case without going to trial whereby the defendant usually agrees to plead guilty to a lesser charge in return for the state willingness to drop the more serious charge. This process is call plea

As mentioned earlier, plea bargaining has it's advantages and disadvantages. The most obvious advantage would be receiving a shorter sentence, and less chargers on ones record. A disadvantage would be that either way you still have to do time in prison. Accepting a plea bargain is not easy at all, everything will depend on things such as your criminal