Plea Bargaining Essay

Khin Pont Pont Kyaw Professor Shay Clamme Criminal Justice 302 11 July, 2015 Plea Bargain: A Necessary Evil or A Violation of Rights Plea bargaining is an obstruction of justice and truth in stories presented by Frontline. The relevant actors of the courthouse including the judges, the prosecutor, and the defense attorneys use plea bargaining as a way to get cases of the docket, to punish all guilty defendants in any way possible, and to reduce time spent on the cases. It seems every one of the defendants

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

History of Discretion Plea bargaining is often associated with the defense and prosecution making “deals” until an agreement is reached on a sentence for the offender. Often times, plea bargaining leads to an offender pleading guilty for a lesser sentence than a sentence obtained from being convicted in trial (Thistlethwaite 2014). Plea bargains can be controversial because some people feel the offender should be punished fully for the crime(s) they have committed (“Plea” 2016). For example, if

1. Consequentially, a plea bargaining is perceived to be right because it ultimately saves tax payers money (waiver of 6th amendment; no trial), punishes the defendant, and bring some justice to the offenders. In my opinion, a plea bargaining is not always “right.” There are many defendants who were innocent of crimes; however, because they were unable to afford good representatives and/or feared a wrong convincing and harsh sentences, they went with a plea bargaining. Meanwhile, we see many wealthy

Plea bargaining and prosecutorial discretion are two crucial components in criminal procedure. The prosecution has leverage over which charges they wish to pursue against a defendant, while the defendant has the choice of adjudication of guilt. Being that time is a critical factor, each party has to weigh the pros and cons before making any decisions. The prosecution aims to enforce the harsher punishment where more time is served, whereas the defendant intends on serving the least time possible

Our criminal justice system today mainly operates on a system known as plea bargaining. Simply put, plea bargaining is the process of negotiation among the defendants, the prosecutor, and the defense counsel. With this, defendants are given the opportunity to negotiate a plea deal, mainly due to the over-crowding in our criminal courts. Because of this, many prosecutors, judges, and defense attorneys feel increased pressured to move the cases quickly through the system. Some believe that this process

Good, Bad and Ugly of Plea Bargaining 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

Posed with the question as to whether or not I believe plea bargaining serves a purpose in the American Criminal Justice system, I answer affirmatively. Plea bargaining results in the disposition of “…approximately 95% of all criminal cases…” (Bohm & Haley, 2014, p. 11) in an overloaded criminal justice system where cases oftentimes take years to resolve. Additionally, I believe plea bargaining should continue to be allowed, as it is a valuable tool that can be used to expedite cases through the

Plea-bargaining in the United States is considered an unregulated practice due to decisions the US Supreme Court made and essentially eliminated lower courts lawful right to judicial supervision (Brown, 2016). These decisions obligated judges to have little input in the plea bargaining process (Brown, 2016). “Those decisions rested primarily on two claims: separation of powers and the practical costs of regulating plea bargaining in busy criminal justice systems” (Brown, 2016, p. 1225). The process

Plea-bargaining There are many ways of resolving the criminal cases as defined in the current criminal justice system. One of this ways is through the use of pleas bargain. Plea bargain happens way before the trial and occurs when defendant accepts the wrong doing. He or she can plead guilty of the crimes or changes where they get to accept lenient sentence that can even lead to dismissal of charges (Lippke, 2011). This is however a private process though it is being taken over by advocacy groups