The Pros And Cons Of Plea Bargaining

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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,

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