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 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
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.
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
Criticism of plea bargaining mainly stems from two aspects. First, on the defendant’s aspect, a plea bargain can coerce
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.
An agreement made in a criminal case between a prosecutor and its defendant, before reaching a trial is a plea bargain. The prosecutor offers an opportunity to the defendant to plead guilty. By agreeing to plead guilty to a crime the defendant would in exchange get a prosecutor’s promise to convince the judge to reduce the sentence. It is really impossible to predict what a jury is going to decide in a trial. I personally think that plea bargaining is being used as an easy way out; instead of having the person who committed the crime pay for what they did by serving the whole time. By managing a plea bargain the terms can sometimes be used to include pondering on how it works and who it can help.
Texas houses the largest prison population in the nation (National News). I am not surprised by this statement. I agree with Tarrant County Sheriff Dee Anderson’s statement, "Texas has always been a law and order state, and the prison system has been known as a tough system”. In my opinion, Texas has high crime statistics because of the high rate of re-offenders. According to the National Criminal Justice Reference Service, “four of ten offenders released from prison will be reincarcerated after three years”. Offenders are leaving prison without being rehabilitated for the crime they committed.
A plea bargain is a discussion between defense counsel and prosecution in which the accused agrees to plead guilty in exchange for certain considerations, such as reduced charges or a lenient sentence (Siegel, 2017, p. 670). To understand why plea bargaining is used so often, you must look at the pros and cons. In deciding if a plea bargain is the best option, then the pros must outweigh the cons and must favor the interests of the state. Some of the pros that stood out were the overall reduction of cost of the criminal prosecution and resources and prosecution being devoted to more serious cases. If the prosecution can push a plea bargain, then they can move on to a more serious case and get more money for their time and services. Plea bargains allow dangerous offenders to receive lenient sentences. Jesse Timmendequas, a previously convicted sex offender, was given a 10-year plea-bargained sentence for child rape. Upon his release, he raped and killed 7-year-old Megan Kanka in one of the nation’s most notorious crimes (Siegel, 2017, p. 392). In other cases, innocent people might plead guilty if they believe that the system is biased and that they have
Plea bargaining saves the court a lot of time by a case not going to trial. If the case doesn’t go to trial it also saves the criminal justice system a lot of money (CJ Interactive Multi-Media, 2014). This allows for the local, state, or Federal government to save on resources they would need to use if every case went to trial. It also saves on how much resources needs to go into the criminal justice system (CJ Interactive Multi-Media, 2014). The courts are all ready over loaded with cases and many have become extremely backlogged. By people plea bargaining it helps resolve the case faster and helps bring down the number of back logged cases in court. A plea bargain also saves on all parties having to go through a trial (CJ Interactive Multi-Media, 2014). Some trials can take up to several months and the outcome of the trial is very unpredictable. Plea barging can also help law enforcement get information they can use about other criminal activities (CJ Interactive Multi-Media,
punished for their crimes at all. It is as simple as that. Granted, a plea
people in these 21st century society wonder, “When is Justice to be done?” For district attorneys,
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).
One could wonder why plea bargains are even made. One reason would be that criminal courts are becoming clogged and overcrowded. Going through the proper procedure and processes that we are granted takes time. Trials can take anywhere from days to...
This problem affects everyone, but only benefits four types of people; the judges, the lawyers, the clients paying thousands more to the lawyers to win their case, and the police. Judges today are not playing fair, and they are accepting bribes from equally corrupt lawyers that are desperate to win a case and improve their case winnings over their losses. The lawyers are asking for more money from the clients so that they can secretly hand over cash to the lawyers and ask for “favors” in the courtroom. With all of this injustice, comes fear implanted in the client, who is then willing to spend more on a lawyer to guarantee their success in a case; “fear and injustice equals more money for lawyers and judges”(Sachs).
A negotiation, a contract, and many more ways used to describe the Criminal Justice System’s notion of plea bargaining. Plea bargaining has been around for a long time, but it is not until recent times that the use of a plea bargain has become a common practice. Defendants are given the chance to plead guilty for a lesser sentence and thus waive their right to trial. However, certain concerns relating to the actual guilt of defendants and the professionalism of the attorneys assigned to a case arise from an ethical stand point. Solutions offered to improve the practice of plea bargaining are often in two extremes. In one extreme, some argue for abolishment. In the other extreme, some state that plea bargaining simply needs to be reformed.