I strongly oppose the executive order banning all Acme City Prosecutor’s from using plea bargaining. Plea bargaining is described as the defendant and the prosecutor negotiates a plea, in which the defendant agrees to plead guild of a lesser charge other than the original charge the defendant was indicted on (Wilson, 2015). Pleas bargaining is widely used in every courtroom today, which is roughly 95% of the time (Haberman, Loopholes). The number of cases that are heard before the Courts are astonishing. In federal courts along, there were over 75,000 cases that were disposed of in 2003 (Devers, 2011)). Plea bargaining plays a huge role to why the courts are able to hear the sheer number of cases and properly dispose of them in a timely matter. …show more content…
What is meant by a revolving door is that a defendant and his attorney enters the court room, stands on one side of the court room, while the prosecutor stands on the other side of the room. These two actors stand in front of the judge and discuss the facts of the defendant’s case. This discussion between the judge, prosecutor and the defendant’s attorney may last no longer than 10 minutes. When the discussion between the three is over, the defendant exits the courtroom. The judge then calls the next defendant and in the same fashion as the prior defendant and the same process occurs. This is how all court dockets are run in today’s courtrooms. This quick process of hearing a large number of defendant’s in a short amount of time is largely due to plea bargaining. In the Courts that I work at, a criminal case from grand jury indictment to final disposition the case roughly lasts an average of 3 months with no motions filed by the prosecutor and defense attorney and no issues being raised about the defendant. Malcom Freely stated that the criminal justice system and a supermarket are very similar. Both have a high volume of business at fixed prices (Freely, 1978). This means that the defendant and their attorney knows what the best plea bargain that will be offered by the prosecutor before entering the courtroom. As Wilson (2015) states, “All of the studies of plea bargaining …show more content…
When a plea bargain is used, everyone within the court greatly benefits because it saves time and resources by avoiding a trail (Haberman, Loopholes). This wasn’t covered in the reading or lecture notes, but I think the most important reasons why plea bargaining is used is that it saves money. A trail costs money, in fact, a lot of money. Everyone that plays a role in a trial receives some type of payment for their services. For the Common Pleas Courts in Ohio, individuals in the courtroom that are being paid, is the judge, prosecutor, members of the judge’s staff, jury members, and under some circumstances subject matter experts that have been called by the state to testify, and this is not even including the final cost for the defendant. Finally, the courts don’t have the man power if there was in fact a ban on plea bargaining and cases went to trial. The amount of time that is invest in each trial would eventually take a toll on everyone involved. In closing, “everybody benefits by being able to save time and resources by avoiding a trails and ensuring the high volume of cases the criminal justice system faces are processed efficiently (Haberman,
Plea bargaining precludes justice from being achieved, where the consent to less severe sentences are given in favour of time and money. The case of R v Rogerson and McNamara, demonstrates the advantages of hiring highly trained legal personnel, which inevitably contributed to their lesser sentence. Thus, making it more difficult for offenders to be convicted.
Furthermore, the “law and order” model was produced after a strong reaction between conservatives and liberal policies advocated by the national crime commissions. The conservative model originated in efforts to reexamine fundamental assumptions of the adult criminal justice system by a series of special study groups that began with the American Friends Service Committee publication “Struggle for Justice.” The committee’s desire to improve the predicament of prison inmates led to a report in 1971 that suggested that indeterminate sentencing and decisions about parole were conflicting and that they allowed biased judgment and improper criteria to control the timeframe served by inmates. Unfortunately, these motives for rejecting indeterminate
A plea bargain is compliance between a prosecutor and defendant in which the accused offender agrees to plead guilty in return for some compromise from the prosecutor. The New Jim Crow, explains how most Americans have no clue on how common it is for people to be prosecuted without proper legal representation and are sentenced to jail when innocent out of fear. Tens of thousands of poor people go to jail every year without ever talking to a lawyer that could possibly help them. Over four decades ago, the American Supreme Court ruled that low-income people who are accused of serious crimes are entitled to council, but thousands of people are processed through America’s courts annually with a low resource lawyer, or no lawyer at all. Sometimes
middle of paper ... ... (Mohr 6) For prosecutors, “guilty pleas avoided ‘onerous and protracted’ trials whose outcomes – ‘losing’ or ‘having to oppose an appeal to the higher courts’ – were both undesirable.” (Smith 134) Finally for judges, plea bargaining reduces their caseload, and elevates their reputation indirectly because accepting a plea bargaining also includes waiver of appeal to higher courts. (Mohr 6) Criticism of plea bargaining mainly stems from two aspects.
Plea bargaining is a tool used in the court system for the benefit and detriment of the accused for numerous reasons. Additionally, the Crown will use plea bargaining for their benefit as well. For the purposes of this paper I intend to focus on the benefits and risks for an accused person to accept a plea bargain.
While the restorative justice movement has risen in recent years, the idea of circle sentencing, or peacemaking circles has been practiced in indigenous cultures for quite some time. As we look at implementing traditional indigenous culture practices as alternative dispute resolutions, we need to realize the effectiveness and also whether we are ready to use them. The Yukon and other communities reintroduced circles in 1991 as a practice of the restorative justice movement (Bazemore, 1997, p.27). Around that same time, Minnesota made the breakthrough in borrowing the practices with each band of Native Americans having their own political communications. Because Minnesota has seven Anishinaabe tribes and four Dakota communities, it has been one of the first states to lead the way for this new program. A circle sentencing program has also been implemented in North Minneapolis for African-American juvenile problems (Ulrich, 1999, p. 425).
The National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals set a limit that each criminal defense attorney can take 150 felony cases per year, but “caseloads of 500, 600, 800, or more are common” (“Five Problems”). With that, criminal defense attorneys are forced to triage or reject cases, leaving potential clients to go to court without representation. If the defendant does have a public attorney, their defense is unprepared and vulnerable to make mistakes when working out a reasonable sentence. In one of his cases, Jones and his client accepted a deal with the prosecution for a three year sentence for stealing locks. Upon further investigation, the prosecution discovered that they made a mistake in calculating the minimum sentence – Jones’s client should have only served “366 days,” but it was already too late (Eckholm).
Plea bargains are one of the most controversial debates that are discussed over the criminal justice court system. A plea bargain is when a defendant agrees to plead guilty to a crime and in exchange for something, for example a lesser sentence. There are three types of plea bargains. Charge bargaining is when a defendant pleads guilty to a less serious charge than the original charge. Count bargaining is when the defendant pleads guilty for some of the charge, but not all. Sentence bargaining is when the defendants get a lesser sentence than the maximum penalty. Through the course of this semester it has been brought to our attention, multiple times, about the problems plea bargaining has caused. Many defendants are pressured by those who surround them in
A plea bargain can be defined as, “a negotiation between the defendant and his attorney on one side and the prosecutor on the other, in which the defendant agrees to plead “guilty” or “no contest” to some crimes, in return for reduction of the severity of the charges, dismissal of some of the charges, the prosecutor’s willingness to recommend a particular sentence or some other benefit to the defendant. Sometimes one element of the bargain is that the defendant reveal information such as location of stolen goods, names of others participating in the crime or admission of other crimes. The judge must agree to the result of the plea bargain before accepting the plea. If he does not, then the bargain is cancelled.”
Throughout the years there have been limitless legal cases presented to the court systems. All cases are not the same. Some cases vary from decisions that are made by a single judge, while other cases decisions are made by a jury. As cases are presented, they typically start off as disputes, misunderstandings, or failure to comply, among other things. It is possible to settle some cases outside of the courts, but that does require understanding and cooperation by all parties involved.
When the War on Drugs began, plea bargains were declared constitutional and had to be regularly used to deal with the sudden stress on the legal system (Berger). The courts, prosecutors, and public defenders couldn 't handle the sheer amount of cases; they now had to deal with by allowing them to go to trial. Once plea bargains were made constitutional, it began to impact the very foundations of the Justice System and those who work on it in several ways. Frankly, it 's my belief that career criminals or those who have committed serious offenses should not be allowed to make an appeal. Crimes like murder, theft of large amounts of money or assault cases should not be allowed to go to a plea bargain. On the other hand, first-time offenders, petty criminals and individuals who are in cases with circumstantial evidence should be allowed to plea. Plea bargaining, on the whole, greatly benefits the prosecutor and the Justice System. Also, it allows for the massive backlog of cases to be alleviated through other means and saves the government a lot of time, stress and taxpayer funds that can be used for more useful and relevant matters (Langden). Plea bargaining also greatly benefits the guilty. It allows for them to reduce the sentences and change what type of charge is left on their record. What a person ultimately found guilty of will have repercussions and having a lesser charge on their records can make a huge difference in their lives (Bernman). The difference between a misdemeanor and felony for some people is the difference between employed and
people in these 21st century society wonder, “When is Justice to be done?” For district attorneys,
For instance, Dr. Kruse, John states in his article, “attorneys and scholars predicted that banning plea bargaining would result in…jamming the courts and creating huge backlogs” (28). This idea seems very logical, but before Dr. Kruse became to this conclusion, he should have supported the idea with research. According to an article titled Alaska 's Plea Bargaining Ban Re-evaluated, “disposition times for criminal cases actually improved” (1). There are many factors why the disposition times improved. One of them is Prosecutors start trying defendants when they have evidence which is beyond a reasonable doubt rather than probable cause. As the research showed in the Alaska state, they have not had and any huge backlogs.
If most cases went to trial, the likelihood of the accused posting bail or the judge releasing the accused on their own recognizance is seldom therefore, jails would be crowded with individuals awaiting court dates. According to an article "Why Innocent People Plead Guilty" by Jed S. Rakoff "In 2013, while 8 percent of all federal criminal charges were dismissed (either because of a mistake in fact or law or because the defendant had decided to cooperate), more than 97 percent of the remainder were resolved through plea bargains, and fewer than 3 percent went to trial." This is infringing people 's right based on the sixth
...ct that in less serious crimes the defendant will plead guilty in order to receive a better deal.