...Accountability has become Hostage of Plea Bargain. Does Plea Bargaining Undermine the Criminal Justice System? Legal and Social Impacts on Society. Student’s Name Institution Contents 1.1 Background to the Study...............................................................................................4 1.2 Purpose of the Study.....................................................................................................5 1.3 Research Objectives......................................................................................................5 1.4 Research Questions.......................................................................................................6 1.5 Significance of the Study..............................................................................................6 2.0 Methodology/ Research Design.....................................................................................6 2.1 Sampling Design............................................................................................................7 2.2 Sample Size....................................................................................................................7 2.3 Data Collection and Analysis.........................................................................................7 2.4 Validity and Reliability..................................................................................................8 2.5 Skills Required......................
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...Accountability has become Hostage of Plea Bargain. Does Plea Bargaining Undermine the Criminal Justice System? Legal and Social Impacts on Society. Student’s Name Institution Contents 1.1 Background to the Study...............................................................................................4 1.2 Purpose of the Study.....................................................................................................5 1.3 Research Objectives......................................................................................................5 1.4 Research Questions.......................................................................................................6 1.5 Significance of the Study..............................................................................................6 2.0 Methodology/ Research Design.....................................................................................6 2.1 Sampling Design............................................................................................................7 2.2 Sample Size....................................................................................................................7 2.3 Data Collection and Analysis.........................................................................................7 2.4 Validity and Reliability..................................................................................................8 2.5 Skills Required......................
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...| A Review of the Literature: Plea Bargaining and Ethics in the Criminal Justice System | | | Plea bargaining is a significant portion of today’s criminal justice system. As Chief Justice Burger stated, “The disposition of criminal charges by agreement between the prosecutor and the accused, sometimes loosely called ‘plea bargaining,’ is an essential component of the administration of justice. Properly administered, it is to be encouraged” (Santobello v. New York, 1971). The practice of plea bargaining has generated thoughtful ethical debate with effective arguments on both sides. Prior to offering an opinion, an understanding and comparison of the points of view regarding its use along with the purpose, types, and effects of plea bargaining must take place. A plea bargain is a criminal case pact wherein one side offers sentence prearrangement to the other in return for a guilty plea (Bikel, 2004). This permits those who have been suspected of serious criminal acts the opportunity to considerably lessen the charges and escape a more severe penalty. The prosecuting attorney will usually bargain this, or the initial charge will endure with a recommendation for a lighter punishment. With these forms of inducements, the courts save time and money swiftly and efficiently (Feješ, 2012). A plea bargain can be introduced by either the prosecuting or defense counsel with both sides negotiating throughout the process. This practice can be swift or entail...
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...Plea Bargaining Christopher Tucker CJS/251 May 12, 2016 Jason Stone Plea Bargaining When first forging America the concept of trial by jury was accepted as indication of new liberties. In the 19th century although people favored the trial by jury system they was found that this process was losing ground fast. In the early century it was perceived that, the guilty plea was substituting trial by jury more often although guilty plea was being made known it was found that more than three times as many criminal convictions had resulted from guilty pleas. Courts have used plea bargains in order to help keep the congested judicial system working as smoothly as possible. Plea bargains are known to assist the court, they also oppose our rights by violating a state statue. A plea bargain is an agreement to plead guilty to a lesser charge with less-stringent sentences. Types of Plea Bargaining The courts of justice use plea bargaining as a vital part of the court process. .According to Siegel, Schmalleger, and Worrall (2011), change bargaining is when the defendant and the prosecuting attorney negotiates the charges that would be filed (p. 318). This would include the defendant pleading guilty on multi-count charges that are considered lesser charge in return for a lighter sentence. Count bargaining is considered by many to fall under charge bargaining. The defendant claims responsibility to only one or more of the initial charges, and the prosecutor makes other charges disappear...
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...The three basic forms of plea bargaining are charged bargaining, sentence bargaining, last but not least, fact bargaining. The influence that is put on prosecutors to consider when deciding whether or not to plea bargain, along with the kind of bargain to make is the serious nature of the committed crime, the background record of the defendant, and how strong the prosecutor can build his or her case. "Plea bargaining serves the interests of all the actors in the administration of justice"(Bohm, & Haley, p. 311). There are many advantages in plea bargaining as well as restrictions of the same. A few interests are: lessening the unpredictability of the amount of time and the after-effects of the results, prosecutors are given a strong desire,...
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...Calling Your Bluff: How Prosecutors and Defense Attorneys Adapt Plea Bargaining Strategies to Increased Formalization by Deirdre M. Bowen People have long debated whether plea bargaining is the best way to handle felony cases in the justice system. This article focuses on a reformed, institutionalized way to plea bargain. The author researches the King County Prosecutors rationalized approach to the way the Early Plea Unit handles their cases. Ms. Bowen states in her article that all authors reviewed agree that, “plea bargaining under an imbalanced system does not achieve justice, much less arrive at something that resembles empirical or legal truth, institutionalized plea bargaining best resembles the criminal justice system’s desire to create efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control in the processing of defendants, and that reform should work to balance the power between the prosecutors and defense team.” (Bowen) Each reviewed author had a little different way to achieve that balance. Uviller (2004) thinks that the system should resemble at factory type approach. The first stage is the charging stage. The case enters the system and is reviewed for the most obvious, easy to prove, and reasonable charges. It then would move to the adjudication. In this stage the negotiating attorney would attempt to make a deal with defendant in order to get a guilty plea. If a deal cannot be reached, the case would then be transferred to the trial team in preparation...
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...Trial and Plea Bargain The criminal justice system today has attributed to it a notion of it being a system “…of pleas, not a system of trials,” (Franze, A., Jeremy, M., 2012). This fact of the pervasiveness of plea bargaining in the legal system is commonly known, and subsequently one of the shared opinions of five of the four justices that ruled on the companion cases: Lafler v. Cooper, and Missouri v. Frye. To even further illustrate this point, “In the state courts in large cities in 2006, 95 percent of all convictions for felony defendants came through guilty pleas rather than trials; in federal courts in 2010, the proportion was 97 percent.” (Baum, 2013). These statistics should solidify the grounds of how prevalent plea-bargaining is in the legal system, as opposed to taking cases to trail. Subsequently, some judges specifically encourage plea-bargaining, and sometimes remand that plea-bargaining occur if it already hasn’t (Baum, 2013). The importance of plea-bargains in the criminal justice system can not be overstated. Keeping this in mind, the sixth amendment provides individuals the right to adequate and subsequently competent counsel during a trial. This concept has recently, in May of 2012, been extended to plea-bargaining along with trails. In May of 2012 the supreme court ruled on two cases that would create a precedent for many future cases involving plea deals. Lafler v. Cooper was a case in which the defendants’ attorney provided bad legal advice...
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...You succinctly described the pros of plea bargaining and its reason for being labeled constitutional. As you note, plea bargaining provides the court system the ability to insure the constitutional right to a speedy trial to defendants. By doing so, prosecutors are able to clear their dockets. Considering the overloaded prosecutorial caseloads and overcrowded prisons, there is no denying that plea bargaining has become a powerful tool wielded by prosecutors and accepted by defense attorneys. Battering outside of court between the prosecution and defense however does not fully insure justice. While plea bargaining in some cold cases may provide the fire needed to close them, too often plea bargaining leaves the victims re-victimized and the...
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...were discussed in the chapter discussed in this week’s text I believe that plea bargaining is the biggest issue we face today. There are laws that are set in place by federal and state legislatures and they are often disregarded when it comes to the decision of the prosecutor. People sometimes get exactly the punishment that the law says, other times they may receive a plea bargain for a much lesser sentence or punishment. This to me is just plain wrong, if there is a law that governs a certain action, a specific and certain punishment should follow. There is not enough power in the hands of judges when it comes to sentencing, this often results in prosecutors bullying defendants into pleading guilty to crimes that they did not do or do not deserve to be punished that harshly for. The text tells us that many people and groups have different views towards plea bargaining. It tells us that the police oppose plea barganing because they believe that defendants are arrested by them and then in turn are let go for a lesser charge than they were booked for. Police often have a very tough job and I can imagine that it would be discouraging for them to arrest someone who committed an awful crime, only to see them accept a deal for a lesser crime and avoid spending time in jail. The article that I chose to read and is about gives the perspective of a judge out of New York City that believes the plea bargaining system is corrupt and broken. He believes that the defendant is not given the...
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...crime. Additionally when comparing crime control and due process models one needs to remember, “Proponents of both models embrace constitutional values which are necessary to the kind of society in which American wish to live” (Zalman, 2008, p. 4). In addition answers will be given to questions about the effects on law enforcement, courts, and differences between federal, and state polices, and distinguishes these values. To utilize plea bargaining is controversial because of the fear that innocent defendants would take a plea and the judge would impose unduly sentences (Neubauer, 2008, p. 20). Also the criticism focuses on the deterrent effect of the punishment itself. The crime control model, court hearings have eroded the deterrent effect of punishment (Neubauer, 2009, p. 20). “Not only is the problem serious, but there is evidence that it is getting worse, suggesting that, whatever deterrent effect the criminal justice system does have, its effectiveness in deterring crime may be decreasing over time” (Barnett-Hagel, 1977). Some believe plea bargains allow the guilty to escape a lighter sentence therefore weakens the adversary system because a person is innocent until proven and every defendant has the right to trial....
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...In order for the plea bargain process to remain a solution for the courts, implications and restrictions need to be placed to prevent chaos and destruction. Because he prosecutors’ authority and power play a key role in the formation of plea bargains, their power needs to become limited so that one prosecutor does not solely determine the fate of the defendant. Much controversy surrounds the role of prosecutors in the plea-bargaining process because of allegations of coercion and biased decisions. In order to begin to fix the process, a focus needs to be shifted onto the prosecutors. Since plea bargains were originally created to speed up trials and release court case loads. Although it has relieved the courts of overloading cases, they have...
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...of the family and helping run the Crematorium, makes sense. For one, take the fact that Bob and Susan, was letting Chip run their business, but, yet being alone as a former coroner speaks words. Why do either Bob, nor Susan have any more useful evidence nor whether, or not either one may be guilty. Take in factor, that there were three different attempts reported on their property. What does three separate occasions tell one. Some, kind of crime, must have happened at least once. Evidence with the proof that this is the first and fore most in the beginning, the procedural steps happen after. Dealing with crime in a small, secluded town down south, it is almost obvious that this case is an inclusive procedure to handle. A plea bargain deals with any argument in any criminal case that may be between...
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...Personally, I think plea-bargaining is not only beneficial but essential for our court system. Plea-bargaining speeds up the court process, gives defendants a way out of a trial, and gets the prosecutors a guilty plea. If we did not have the option to plea-bargain our court system would be slower than what it already is. Being able to work out cases without a trial keeps the caseload down (Bohm & Haley, 2014). We have a slow court system as it is with having to wait on arresting agencies to send over the arrest, then prosecutors reviewing the facts of the case to see if a viable case should be filed, to finally filing a case. This sometimes can take months to happen. Once the case is filed defense attorneys have to try and work out the case and...
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...Rasheka, it is obvious that you are sold with this new era of fake justice. Adrian Peterson was targeted because he is rich African American and the he was forced into a plea bargaining like a large number of defendants are. Since when did a switch become a weapon of force against a child and your hand is not? If that is the case, then every parent in America should be convicted of child abuse and charged with assault. If you are saying that it is okay to whip your child with your hands then what is the difference between when a person is struck in the face or body by another person and they are charged with assault if the charges are filed and upheld? Plea bargaining is an alternative for the judicial system and all included but it is a joke....
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...identification of suspects. Criminal procedure also involves a process of criminal trial, in which a person is tried for their crime. The trial process can be extensive, but criminal charges can also be settled in the pretrial process. The pretrial process largely determines the outcome of a criminal case; most criminal cases never make it to trial. Charges against the defendant may be dropped or dismissed due to a lack of evidence. The defendant may also plead guilty without trial. Many guilty pleas result from plea negotiations between the prosecutors and defendant or defense attorneys. This pretrial process makes a formal criminal trial unnecessary (Scheb & Sharma, 2013). There are various roles in the criminal trial process, including the judge, the prosecuting attorneys, the jury, and the expert witnesses such as forensic psychologists. The assortment of roles has a high effect on the outcome for the defendant. A prosecutor is responsible for determining what charges to pursue and whether to plea bargain with the defendant. A jury decides a verdict. A judge decides a sentence. A forensic psychologist can influence all of these decisions by serving as an expert witness after their interaction with the defendant. All of these positions involve a great deal of discretion. This work seeks to research existing guidelines for decisions of prosecutors in bringing charges against a defendant, of judges in sentencing a defendant, of forensic psychologists in giving expert testimony,...
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