Pros And Cons Of Plea Bargain

Great Essays
Introduction “A Plea Bargain is an agreement in a criminal case between prosecutor and defendant that typically involves the defendant agreement to plead guilty, often to lesser offense or to a reduced sentence that has been agreed upon in advance” (http://criminal.findlaw.com/criminal-procedure/plea-bargain-pros-and-cons.html? version=2). Plea bargain has been gaining attention because it has become an issue between people. On how plea bargain is affecting the court system, plea bargain has been in this nation for many of years. Throughout these years there have been a lot of growth in people using the plea bargain. Making people believe if plea bargain is a good method for the court system or if it isn’t. Which creates an argument between …show more content…
For example, courts have a lot of cases to handle and to be able to shorting a case with a plea bargain is easier than handling it with it. “Plea bargaining advocates point to the fact that criminal caseloads commonly doubled from one decade to the next, while judicial resources increased only slightly”(Palmer, 1999). Another positive result from plea bargain is it protects the defendant from a harsh punishment. “The concessions will make possible will make possible alternative correctional measures which are better adapted to achieving rehabilitative, protective, deterrent or other purposes of correctional treatment, or will prevent undue harm to the defendant from the form of conviction”(Palmer, 1999). If a defendant is guilty and the punishment is big, the plea bargain helps the defendant with minimizing the punishment. The last positive result that plea bargain gives to the court system is it makes sure that a defendant isn’t mistaken when it comes to guilty or not guilty. For example, if the court somehow gives a verdict wrong to a defendant. The defendant is going to get a bigger punishment. So for that reason plea bargain is a positive result for the court because innocent defendants are getting protective from a punishment they don’t deserve. Overall, plea bargain have a lot of positive reasons why it helps the court and

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Review: In 1975, Attorney General, Avrum Gross, declared a prohibition on plea-bargaining in Alaska. Michael Rubinstein and Teresa J. White from National Institute of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice were assigned to study the impact of Gross’s decision. Their first task was looking at whether the policy had been carried out by the courts in Alaska, and second, was what the effects were on Alaska’s criminal justice system. This involved conducting 400 interviews of the surrounding judges in Alaska and collecting information from 3,586 case files. Overall their goal was to create a detailed description of the Alaska system during the “before and after” years.…

    • 898 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Plea-bargaining is an important process in the criminal justice system and are used to prevent lengthy trials. It is defined as “the process of negotiating a guilty plea involving either charge bargaining, where the prosecutor will offer to reduce the severity of the charges or the number of counts in exchange for a guilty plea, or sentence bargaining, where the prosecutor will agree to recommend leniency at the sentencing stage” (Hemmens, Brody, & Spohn, 2013). However, there are both pros and cons with plea-bargaining. One reason why plea-bargaining is an advantage to the court system is because it helps to relieve caseloads since the prosecutor’s workload decreases when a defendant takes the bargain. Also, when a defendant goes this route,…

    • 421 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Brothel Boy Case Study

    • 1251 Words
    • 6 Pages

    With the help of the villagers, Blair was able to research the life story about the brothel boy, along with the crime he committed. The Brothel Boy is far from a boy, as he is roughly twenty or so years old, who was born and raised in the Brothel. He was the son of a woman who worked in the brothel as a prostitute, but died shortly after the boy’s birth, and a man who was unknown. Therefore, the brothel keeper took him in to raise him. It was extremely apparent that the boy was uneducated and retarded, “The boy was obviously stupid.”…

    • 1251 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Many take the plea to get lower sentences. The defendants may have to live in prison and suffer from the label of felon. With the overwhelming caseloads, public defender do not have time to work thoroughly on the cases (Siegel, Schmalleger, and Worrall, 2017, p. 243). Public defenders should get more support staff to help in preparation of cases even though…

    • 213 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    At times, cases that go to trial are lengthy and if a defendant has a private attorney this can be costly. Another incentive would be that plea bargains provide a faster resolution and cause less stress than if the case had gone to trial. Overall, it may seem that plea bargains offer various benefits to the criminal justice system as whole and to the defendant. Therefore, a person viewing these factors may state that the usage of plea bargains leaves all parties better off; however, how better off are the parties…

    • 1441 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Plea bargaining has many benefits which is why it is so common in the United States criminal justice…

    • 653 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Plea bargaining most often takes place before the beginning of a trial. It is the process by which the defendant and the prosecution work out a conclusion to the case, subject to court approval. For the prosecutor, the purpose of plea bargaining is to ensure a defendant gets punishment. For the defense, it is a way to get a lesser charge than if the case were to go to…

    • 606 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Plea Bargain Advantages

    • 2557 Words
    • 11 Pages

    When a defendant agrees to plead guilty the time spent on what would have been their trial can now be devoted to another defendant. When a defendant takes advantage of a plea deal, they are often granted leniency on their punishment compared to what they might have received if the case went to trial. An advantage for the prosecutor is not gambling the case in court and risk the case being dismissed, or the defendant found not guilty. Another benefit that plea bargains offer is saving the victim from testifying in court. Psychologically, testifying in court could be very traumatizing to the…

    • 2557 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Making it much harder for a guilty plea to be tossed. This also brings into question his or her creditability, changing your statement after some time to think about it may seem odd to some. Changing a plea is easier done by the defendant, if he or she has favorable evidence against the prosecutors case. This evidence may be the lack of creditability the prosecutors main witness, DNA evidence or something that can confirm his or her…

    • 751 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The use of coercion in plea bargains is constitutional according to the Supreme Court. Since plea-bargains for drug courts involve a greater need of coercion than normal court process due to the limited options available, it is considered a leveraging power to help drug users take advantage of the necessary treatment provided. However, the excessive use of coercion has led to many drug offenders entering treatment that are considered understaffed and over capacity (Parsons & Wei, 2015). The excessive use of coercion has also forced a drug courts to choice in behalf of the defendant, since the alternative is facing a jail sentence. Despite the concerns addressed, the courts when challenged of this claim find under the drug court setting that…

    • 1032 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Around 95 percent of cases are plea bargained. Without plea bargaining, the court system would be drowning in cases and the right to a speedy trial under the 6th amendment would be virtually impossible. The court system in the United States is already overloaded with cases waiting to be heard, and the added cases resulting in the elimination of plea bargaining would be catastrophic for the criminal justice system. What plea bargaining does is allow the prosecutor to offer a lesser charge and, in turn, the defendant waives their right to a trial. It allows the court system to move along faster and deal with the offenders who commit more serious, heinous crimes.…

    • 653 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Plea Bargaining Process

    • 1131 Words
    • 5 Pages

    What is the role of the prosecutor in the plea bargaining process? The role of the prosecutor in a Plea-bargaining process is to get the defendant to come to an agreement to where the defendant pleads guilty to some or many of the charges filed against them therefore bypassing a costly trial preceding. The prosecutor usually offers a reduced punishment if the defendants agrees to their terms. In some jurisdictions prosecutors and the defendant can work with the judges to help them determine what the sentence they will get if they accept the plea bargain. As prosecutor, what would you recommend in an attempt to resolve the case and why?…

    • 1131 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When less severe crimes receive the same or similarly harsh punishments as more serious or felonious crimes it creates an inequality within the courtroom. Removing plea bargaining would show results similar to the case from 1975 in Alaska where the Attorney General forbade prosecutors from plea bargaining with offenders. The results from this occurrence showed that the punishments for violent and felonious crimes did not change, but the punishments for less serious offenses and misdemeanors where dramatically increased (Rubinstein & White, 1978). The inequality created from the removal of plea bargaining would have drastic effects on the criminal justice system where the punishment for less serious crimes would be severely punishable but would have little to no effect on felonies and crimes of a violent nature. In the case from Alaska the primary objective was to hinder plea bargaining for the more serious offenders yet the outcome would eliminate the discretionary decision making of the courts and would lead to first time offenders of smaller crimes receiving unequal punishments for their crimes and reduced probability for parole (Rubinstein & White, 1978).…

    • 1307 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Abolishing the Plea Bargaining System 97 percent of federal cases and 94 percent of state cases end in plea bargains, with defendants pleading guilty in exchange for a lesser sentence (Goode, 2012). A plea bargain is an arrangement that happens between a prosecutor and the defendant in a criminal case. The prosecutor gives the defendant the opportunity to plead guilty to their charge or a lesser charge in order to avoid trial and the possibility of receiving the maximum sentence. While it would seem that plea bargains are equally beneficial to both prosecutors and defendants, plea bargains are overwhelmingly beneficial to the prosecutor and it is the defendant who ultimately can be harmed by plea bargaining. Plea bargaining should be banned because it bargaining circumvents the Constitutional rights for defendants, leads to shortcuts in the judicial system and can lead to increased convictions of the innocent.…

    • 494 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Jury System Dbq Essay

    • 1073 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Juries The jury system has been a part of our society for hundreds of years. It was first created to give all defendants that option to be judged by their peers for their charges instead of by solely a judge. This provides an excellent opportunity to those who feel that their peers can give them a verdict that is not decided by the professional judge.…

    • 1073 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays

Related Topics