Preview

Plea Bargaining In Criminal Justice

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
81 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Plea Bargaining In Criminal Justice
Plea bargaining is an essential tool used in the criminal justice system today.The process of plea bargaining usually begins before trial, and can involve a phone call between the prosecutor and the defense (Phelps & Cengage, 2006). Once the plea bargain is negotiated it would have to be approved by a judge in open court (Phelps & Cengage, 2006)With the amount of court proceedings that take place plea bargaining is a tool that can allow less cases on a judge’s

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Using the fairness and justice decision-making process it made me decide that the use of plea bargaining was unethical; due to the fact that it was not fair that criminals who have committed unlawful acts like rape, robbery, and numerous horrendous crimes were given leniency just because they are acknowledging they executed the offense. Stating your guilty doesn’t mean they reflected upon their actions and are ready to start a new leaf. They have instigated the felony and it is only right that they get the full consequence of their atrocity. Furthermore, what’s worse is that because of the pressure and fear of being convicted, the innocent plead guilty and the immoral run free and continue to disrupt the peace of the community. In conclusion, there is no fairness and justice when there is plea bargaining.…

    • 240 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In her article “Innocence is Irrelevant,” Emily Yoffe, a contributing editor at The Atlantic, argues that plea bargains control the justice system. According to Yoffe, plea bargains make it easy for prosecutors to convict defendants who may not be guilty but at the same time, pleas bargains offer leniency. Yoffe supports her position by providing examples of previous cases.…

    • 396 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Chapters 5-9 Study guide

    • 2328 Words
    • 10 Pages

    2. For defense attorneys a “successful” case often means a reduction in sentence via a plea bargain, not…

    • 2328 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    When a justice system replaces jury trials with plea negotiations it contradicts the fair rules of evidence in front of a judge or a jury. Plea negotiations are very different from the formal process. Criminals end up of facing sentences that are lighter while victims are left unsatisfied. Plea Bargaining is very private which can affect the outcome and will not benefit the everybody. While the bargain might help that receive less severe penalties than a conviction at trial, the bargain may still leave you with a criminal record that can have a huge affect in the future. For example, in Erma Stewart’s case after she chose to plea guilty her entire life changed. As she explained she could not afford to pay her probation fines due to the fact…

    • 354 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The three basic types of plea bargains can be summed up as: 1) Plead to a lesser offense. 2) plead guilty to receive lesser sentence. 3) plead guilty to one charge to have another dropped. If prosecutors decide to bargain, there are three main factors that play a role in whether or not to offer a bargain. The first is the seriousness of the crime. The more serious the crime, the less likely a bargain will be struck. The second factor taken into consideration before a plea bargain is offered, history. An offender’s past criminal history is taken into consideration when plea bargains are considered. The last consideration when plea bargains are being considered, strength of the prosecution’s case. If a case is weak, a plea bargain may be considered…

    • 286 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Cole, Plea-bargaining is negotiating a settlement between the prosecutor and the defense attorney, that would exchange a guilty plea for a lighter sentence.. Generally if the prosecutor is willing to lower the sentence, the defense will accept and plea guilty to the crime he or she was accused of. Roughly thirty-five years ago, plea-bargaining was not discussed outside of the courtroom. It was a “secret” of the court and done behind closed doors. Now, people know what plea-bargaining is, and is now a very controversial subject in society. There are positives and negative aspects of plea-bargaining in the case of Councilman…

    • 932 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Plea bargains are an assertion in a criminal case between the prosecutor and the respondent that ordinarily includes the litigant conceding so as to get a lesser offense or sentence. Plea bargains are frequently alluded to as truly simply building up a common affirmation of the case's qualities and shortcomings, and don't really reflect a conventional feeling of Justice. In principle, courts are glad to host the individual gatherings work out an answer independent from anyone else, yet it makes one wonder…

    • 182 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    When it comes to plea bargaining, there are two different types that can be offered to the defendant by the prosecutor: sentence bargaining and charge bargaining. Sentence bargaining is when the accused is informed of what the sentence will be with a guilty plea and is useful in helping the prosecutor to obtain a conviction by offering the minimum, instead of the maximum sentence for the charge. If the defendant is facing serious charges and does not want to chance receiving a maximum sentence during trial, they may enter a guilty plea in order to serve the least amount of time possible. Charge bargaining is when the prosecutor offers to either charge the accused with a lesser charge, or to reduce the number of charges that have been filed against him/her, in exchange for a guilty plea. For example, if the defendant is charged with a DUI, driving with an expired license, and driving with expired…

    • 1298 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Plea Bargaining has become a major factor in our criminal justice system. Like all controversial topics there are many pros and cons that make it hard to decide what is right and wrong about the situation. I personally feel that plea bargaining should be abolished. Plea bargains are creating harm to our criminal justice system. Due to plea bargains the criminal justice system is being undermined and losing control of what is happening to criminals.…

    • 177 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The question we are debating today is whether or not plea-bargaining undermines the Criminal justice system? The job of the Criminal justice system is to protect the citizens of the United States. How are we protecting them if we give criminals shorter sentences than they deserve? When we plea bargain we release more criminals back into the streets and put citizens of the United States' safety at risk. A plea bargain is an agreement in a criminal case in which a prosecutor and a defendant arrange to settle the case against the defendant. The United states department of justice's mission statement reads: To enforce the law and defend the interests of the United States according to the law; to ensure public safety against threats foreign and domestic; to provide federal leadership in preventing and controlling crime; to seek just punishment for those guilty of unlawful behavior; and to ensure fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans. This statement is being undermined because not…

    • 626 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Whether or not it is possible to entirely eliminate plea bargaining in all its forms and varieties, I am not persuaded that it is desirable to do so. But I am no friend of plea bargaining in the unrestrained forms of it that are evident in the United States. In a nutshell, the normative position I shall advance is this: individuals charged with crimes who are willing to confess or plead guilty should be granted modest and fixed sentence discounts in exchange for doing so. Charge bargaining, and that which often accompanies and enables it, strategic overcharging, should be strongly discouraged. Trial penalties, that is, additional increments of punishment assigned to individuals who exercise their right to trial, should be prohibited. However,…

    • 212 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Plea Bargaining Cases

    • 1514 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Plea bargaining is the process by which an agreement between the prosecutor and the defendant where the defendant pleads guilty to a lesser charge in the expectation of leniency. On February 7th, 1881 the first plea bargain was used in a trial by Albert McKenzie in the state of California (“Plea bargaining gains favor in American courts”). After the first use of a plea bargain in a 30 year span in Alameda County, “nearly 10 percent of defendants changed their “not guilty” pleas to “guilty of lesser charge” or plead guilty to reduced charges (“Plea bargaining gains favor in American courts”).” Soon plea bargaining spread throughout the entire United States becoming popular for most defendants. Alschuler (1979) found that over…

    • 1514 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    I do believe that there are instances where plea bargaining can be an effective tool in the criminal justice system, however, as it stands, the overuse of the plea bargain by prosecutors has diminished it’s potential worth as a true bargaining tool by their flagrant daily misuse. While it is understood that the case load for the courts is overwhelmed and an alternative method of securing some form of justice is needed to alleviate the overrun system, the use of the plea bargain to alleviate the overcrowded courts is not completely acceptable.…

    • 444 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Without question, plea bargains benefit many defendants who have committed crimes and receive lighter sentences than they might after trial. It also limits cases that require considerable time and expense in court.” (Oppel, 2011) Victims feel as though this gives them less jail time which in turn means that they will be back out on the streets sooner to resume committing these crimes again. Victims fear for their lives and the lives of their family as well because they feel as though there may be some retaliation brought to them because they file charges against…

    • 519 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    There are many parts of the courtroom work group professionals who successfully pursuit justice and the process of convicting a criminal. The courtroom work group has a major role in convicting and finalizing a case. In the courtroom work group, there are three groups of people that hold the entire courtroom together. Without the work group, the courtroom would not flow, and coming to a conclusion to the case would not be as easy. The work group is made up of the Judge, the Defense Attorney, Public Defender, Court Recorders, and the Prosecutor Attorney. Which all are part of the courtroom work group which they work together to reach a decision, in the case by interacting among themselves and who’s involved an implicit recognition and rule of civility, cooperation, and sharing their goals. There are many roles in the work group, and if they are not all followed through with then the results could be different than what they should be. In this paper, we will look at the roles of the prosecutor, how the criminal justice funnel effects the courtroom work group and what will help eliminate the funnel and reduce the backlog of cases.…

    • 1422 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays