ipl-logo

Pros And Cons Of Plea Bargaining

1423 Words6 Pages

Janet Vargas SOC 370 Pros and Cons of Plea Bargaining Many criminal cases are resolved outside the court in which they will have both sides come to an agreement.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. Plea bargaining is used for prevalent reasons that may include that defendants can avoid the time and the cost of defenfing themselves at trial which can bring the risk of a tougher …show more content…

Prosecutors benefit from plea bargaining because it enables them to secure high conviction rates while avoiding the expense, uncertainty, and opportunity costs of trials. By obtaining guilty pleas, prosecutors can pursue more cases, potentially resulting in greater aggregate deterrent or incapacitative effects with a finite amount of resources. Overloadded courts also benefit from plea bargains and why its common. The US Supreme court has recognized plea bargain as necessary for excessive courts.”Our office keeps the courtrooms busy trying 5 percent of the cases, if even 10 percent end in a trial the system would break down”( Zimring and Frase,1980:506). 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

Show More
Related

Plea Bargaining Research Paper

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.

Read More

Brian Banks Case Paper

644 Words | 3 Pages

In this case, how do we reconcile the benefits of plea bargaining with the importance of justice? Our criminal justice system is a system where “95% of criminal defendants plead guilty to the charges against them” whether they are guilty or not (pg 11).

Read More

Plea Bargain Research Paper

1308 Words | 6 Pages

Marcus J. Paulus 2/14/2018 Plea Paper Plea Paper          The plea bargain is necessary part of our justice system. This is because of the vast number of cases our justice system has to deal with each year it would be almost impossible to take all these cases to court each year. Plea bargains give people the chance to reduced there sentence by admitting they committed the crime or a less crime in order for the prosecutor to get a guilty verdict.          The plea bargain process is supposed to be introduced to the discussion but they prosecutor and not the defendant.

Read More

Essay On Henry Alford Case

1048 Words | 5 Pages

Overall, eliminating ethical dilemmas. And defendants are not longer encouraged to

Read More

Role Of Plea Bargaining In Criminal Justice

352 Words | 2 Pages

• Plea-bargaining weakens the criminal justice system with the concept that if all cases went to trial the court system would be unable to support the workload. This is a factor that can be disputed by jurisdictions that have ban plea bargaining and continued to operate appropriately. Plea-bargaining is known as the agreement in a criminal court proceeding that is made between a defendant and a prosecutor. Plea bargains typically involve a lesser sentence in return for an omission of wrongdoing. Plea bargains do not forsake the criminal justice system, however they do allow for a speedy exit strategy for prosecutors.

Read More

The Pros And Cons Of Plea Bargaining

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.

Read More

Pros And Cons Of Plea Bargaining

747 Words | 3 Pages

Plea Bargaining is the most effective tool of prosecutors to minimize the time required to obtain convictions. Around ninety percent of cases are concluded using plea bargaining. (Barkan and Bryjack, Page 2) This process moves cases through the system quickly and prevents the need to add more judges and court systems if these cases were to go to trial. (Barkan and Bryjack, Page 249) From the judge and prosecutors point of view, this is a necessary and effective method of managing caseloads.

Read More

Plea Bargaining In Criminal Cases

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.

Read More

Capital Murder Trials: The High Cost Of Crime

179 Words | 1 Pages

The costs of capital murder trials are more expensive than other murder trials for many of reasons. Often in murder trials where the death penalty is not being sought, the case never goes to trial and the offender pleads to a lesser degree of murder such as second degree murder or manslaughter. Depending on the location in the country, a prosecutor may be swayed politically or by the victim’s family to agree to life in prison without the possibility of parole. What makes a capital murder trial so expensive is “the high cost of crime scene investigations, pretrial preparations and motions, expert witness investigations, jury selection, and heightened death row security and maintenance costs” (Schmalleger & Smykla, 2015, p. 493). The overall

Read More

Plea Bargaining System

839 Words | 4 Pages

Plea-Bargaining and its Impact on the Criminal Justice System Introduction The criminal justice system is made to give the punishment to the accused according to the law. Those communities who have a fair justice system usually get success and equality among all the citizens. There are many procedures which are used to settle down the matters between the defender and prosecutor side. Some are related to the justice procedures and others are used to settle down matter outside the courts like plea- bargaining.

Read More

Plea Bargaining In Criminal Justice

738 Words | 3 Pages

There are a variety of factors that have led to the rampant use of plea bargaining. One reason, that it is commonly utilized to resolve criminal cases, is that many public defenders have extremely large case loads and limited funding that often results in what seems to be a push for clients to accept these plea bargains in” a strategy of ‘plead ‘em and speed ‘em through’” (Schmalleger, 2016, p.246). Furthermore, the use of plea bargains also reduces the workloads of the courts both on the federal and state level, as a plea bargain is a much swifter way to garner a guilty verdict than waiting on a trial that can often become a belabored and lengthy process.

Read More

Evidence That Defendant Is Guilty

851 Words | 4 Pages

I do not think that the plea bargain lets someone off easy. While they might receive a lesser change they also are having the fact that they admitted to doing something taken into consideration by the court system when they decide on the punishment. I feel that it equals out in the long run for those who end up taking the plea bargain. In small cases yes the person might get off with just probation, but is probation was something in condensation then the crime could not have been that detrimental. They would not offer something like probation to a deranged murderer if they confessed to killing someone.

Read More

John Pfaff Lock In Sparknotes

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

Read More

Race In The Prison System Essay

965 Words | 4 Pages

Since the courts are backlogged and many public defenders and judges being overworked, this causes plea bargaining to be used repeatedly. According to Walker et al. (2018), plea bargaining leaves many people no option but to plea guilty even when this is not their best option. This is due to a multitude of reasons but mainly to receive a lesser charge. For example, a felony and little time in jail may be better than risking multiple felonies and an excessive amount of time in jail.

Read More

Why Is Oj Simpson Guilty

1146 Words | 5 Pages

Imagine how a court would be run if it was dysfunctional. With many pieces of evidence to solve one problem that can lead to months after months, just to say those words, “guilty or not guilty.” There was one case that caught everybody's attention and became very famous. In 1994, O.J Simpson was accused for brutally murdering his ex-wife Nicole Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. He was sentence to court, and it took about 10 months to come to a conclusion as he walked out of court as a freedman.

Read More

More about Pros And Cons Of Plea Bargaining

Open Document