Why Plea Bargaining in Criminal Trials is Important

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Recommended: Plea bargaining appears to result from several overriding factors

Why Plea Bargaining in Criminal Trials is Important

Screeech! That is the sound of our court system coming to a grinding

halt, if plea bargaining were no longer utilized. Not only does plea bargaining

save taxpayers an enormous amount of money, it often provides the evidence for a

conviction and allows public defenders and other court officials to concentrate

their limited resources on more important or difficult cases. Some people may

believe that plea bargaining with criminals is wrong. The entire basis of the

argument against plea bargaining says that criminals should not testify or have

anything to do with the prosecution because they were involved with the crime.

We fail to realize that without plea bargaining many criminals would never be

punished for their crimes at all. It is as simple as that. Granted, a plea

bargain is, by definition, a compromise. But it is a compromise that is

absolutely necessary for the judicial system to function. While it may seem

that a person who exchanges his testimony for a lighter sentence would have

sufficient motivation to lie in court the fact is that his testimony is simply

verifying the testimonies of other witnesses. In a majority of cases plea

bargains is utilized to ensure that the truly guilty criminal is punished. In

our less than perfect world, plea bargaining is easily the lesser of the evils.

I agree with the definitions submitted by the affirmative speaker.

Americans have always emphasized getting a job done. We place a great

deal of value on efficiency and industry. The government is expected to run

with efficiency and operate with the good of the people in mind. Every aspect

of our lives is governed by this utilitarian value. Why do we place such

importance on efficiency? Because without it nothing would ever get done. If

we all constantly obsessed over minute details and unrealistic ideals we would

live in poverty. In the real world compromises are made because without them no

amount of success could ever be achieved. In the words of John Stewart Mill,

the father of utilitarianism, "The creed which accepts as the foundation of

morals utility, or the greatest happiness principle, holds that actions are

right in proportion as they promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the

reverse of happiness". This means that in a world of compromise, the most

success is achieved by giving the greatest good to the greatest number of people.

This belief applies directly to plea bargaining.

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