Plea Bargaining
Pleading for Justice
Plea bargaining by its very nature implies negotiation, which in turn means that two or more parties are seeking to achieve specific goals with the cooperation of the other parties. In the absence of plea bargaining the parties would face each other in court as adversaries in front of a referee and their conduct and the trial's proceedings would be strictly controlled according to the law and judicial precedence. In contrast, plea bargaining allows the parties to be more creative when seeking their goals, but without the trappings and constitutional safety nets that a trial provides (Bowers, 2007). Plea bargaining is therefore a less formal legal proceeding that nevertheless determines the fate of the accused with respect to criminal convictions, sentencing, and fines.
The parties with a vested interest in the outcome of a criminal plea bargain are the police, accused, prosecutor, judge, and hopefully a defense attorney or public defender (Bowers, 2007). As Josh Bowers notes, past practices defines what will occur during plea bargaining and the law tends to take a backseat. This type of proceeding is therefore susceptible to individual preferences, political agendas, and institutional pressures, with the most power in the hands of police and prosecutors. A jury or bench trial, by contrast, tends to compensate for this imbalance in power by acting as a referee between the two adversaries.
If plea bargaining rarely occurred there would be little cause for concern, but 97% of all federal convictions in 2009 were the result of a plea deal (Gray, Cooper, and McAloon, 2012). This essay will examine the controversies surrounding plea bargaining and how it could be serving or subverting the goals of justice.
Political Influence
Bowers (2007) examines a phenomenon that he calls 'grassroots' plea bargaining. What this term implies is prosecutors seeking to institute a policy agenda by altering how they handle plea bargains....
" This means that, "It is an indictment of the criminal justice system, not plea bargaining itself" (Sandefur, 2003, p. 31). The Constitution incorporated the right to a trial into the process, and it does not necessarily entail that: the defendant needs to know his rights in waiving them or hiring a legal counsel to help. Sandefur finally stated that, "Plea bargaining is not perfect, but its problems are procedures
Plea Bargaining Many criminal cases are often resolved out of court through agreement between the aggrieved party and the offender. The process of achieving such a settlement is referred to as Plea Bargain in law. It is a practice that is used in many jurisdictions to resolve cases. Either of the sides in the case may initiate the Plea bargain process. Both sides have to agree before such a process succeeds
Benefits From Plea Bargaining? Although the U.S. Constitution guarantees all defendants a trial by jury, individuals entering the criminal justice system today have about a one-in-twenty chance of actually undergoing a trial, with the rest of the cases being plea bargained away. While this approach facilitates the disposition of cases in already overbooked courtrooms, plea bargaining has been the source of a growing amount of criticism as a result of
Police Abuse/Problems with Guilty Pleas Police Abuse From time to time, the media highlights stories about police abuse that can best be described as disturbing. It is unfortunate that some police officers do turn against the same people they have sworn to keep safe. Indeed, most victims of police brutality are left feeling frightened, betrayed and helpless. Further, police abuse triggers a cycle of mistrust in which case the community gradually loses
D.). Armed robbery is an offense carried out while in possession of a drawn weapon like gun despite of whether it was fired or not. Plea negotiation or bargaining is usually conducted in order to lessen trial expense and involves the provision of a lesser sentence by the prosecutor in exchange for admission of guilt. Pre-trial conference involves discussions between the defense, prosecutor, and judge to ascertain the need for
Plea Bargaining and the For Profit Prison Industrial Complex Any discussion of systemic racism in America would be incomplete without mentioning how race impacts the criminal justice system. It should not be surprising to anyone to hear that the black population is overrepresented in the what Angela Davis has termed the prison industrial complex (Lentin, 2020). 37% of America’s prison population is black, yet blacks are only 12% of the total
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