...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...
Words: 898 - Pages: 4
...Plea bargains play a major role in the criminal justice system. The use of plea bargains has become quite controversial with valid points argued by those who support and those who oppose their use. Before making a decision to agree or disagree, one must compare the arguments regarding the use of plea bargains as well as understand the purpose of the plea bargain, types of plea bargains, and the positive and negative aspects of each type of plea bargain. Purpose of Plea Bargains A plea bargain is an arrangement made for a criminal case in which the prosecution proposes a deal to the defendant in exchange for a guilty plea. A plea bargain allows individuals who have been accused of criminal activity the ability to dodge a possible conviction during a trial for a more serious charge. The prosecution will typically offer the defendant a sentence for a lesser charge, or the original charge will remain with an additional recommendation for a lighter sentence (Meyer & Grant, 2003). These types of incentives allow the courts to save time and money by settling cases quickly and effectively. Plea bargains are initiated by either the defense or prosecuting attorney. Both parties are involved throughout the process of negotiations. This process can either be speedy or consist of several lengthy meetings that involve changing the conditions of the plea agreement until an agreement is reached. The prosecution and defense must be in complete agreement regarding the conditions...
Words: 1365 - Pages: 6
...that 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...
Words: 614 - Pages: 3
...1 Assignment – Plea Bargaining Sarah Lee Westwood College – South Bay CRJS121 – Corrections Dalia Fragoso August 19, 2013 Plea Bargaining The right to a trial by jury was considered a central part of the justice system in the early days of the United States. The Seventh Amendment of the Bill of Rights codified it as an essential part of Americans' civil liberties. When criminals were caught and charged, the government went through a trial and verdict. But in the 1800s, a trend toward plea-bargaining began. In Alameda County, from 1880 to 1910, nearly 10 percent of all defendants changed their "not guilty" pleas to "guilty of lesser charges" or pled guilty to reduced charges (Fisher, 2003). A plea bargain is an agreement between a defendant and a prosecutor, in which the defendant agrees to plead guilty or no contest (nolo contendere) in exchange for an agreement by the prosecutor to drop one or more charges, reduce a charge to a less serious offense, or recommend to the judge a specific sentence acceptable to the defense. As criminal courts become ever more crowded, prosecutors and judges alike feel increased pressure to move cases quickly through the system. Criminal trials can take days, weeks, or sometimes months, while guilty pleas can often be arranged in minutes. Also, the outcome of any given trial is usually unpredictable, whereas a plea bargain provides both prosecution and defense with some control over the result. Today, the plea bargain is an essential...
Words: 803 - Pages: 4
...interview a judge on his role in major criminal cases from his role beginning with first contact dealing with a plea bargain. The reason I choose to focus on that of plea bargains is because based on the videos I viewed this is the first initial contact the defendant has with the judge and most of the most memorable parts of many criminal court cases. Q: Good afternoon, one thing that stands out to me is why do we have so many plea bargains with in this country? A: Good question, for one our constitution states that everyone should offered that of a speedy trial. With that plea bargains can be looked at as such. Also if we were to send every case in front of jury many cases would never be heard and or pushed so far back that defendants will not receive the proper attention and or defense based on that fact if they had a public defender or private attorney. Q: when it comes to a plea bargain what is role? A: As a judge we oversee and supervise to make sure boundaries are set and it falls it the expectations of the community we are servicing. Also with this with have the right to accept or deny any plea bargain that is brought to us. But once a plea is made either guilty or no contest, it is our responsibility to make sure that the defendant is this decision on his own free will and in sole right mind. Once approved it will no longer go to trial. Q: When entering a plea hearing how much do you really know about case before it is presented to you and knowing more about the case...
Words: 845 - Pages: 4
...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...
Words: 831 - Pages: 4
...Plea-bargaining, used in ninety percent of criminal convictions in the United States criminal justice system today is the exchange of prosecutorial and legal concessions for pleas of guilty. Generally, a defendant in a criminal trial will enter “one of three pleas: guilty, not guilty, or nolo contendere.” Nolo contendere, otherwise known as no contest has the same effect as a guilty plea, which means the defendant is convicted and accepts punishment but does not admit guilt (lawyers.com). But in the plea-bargaining process, which aims to avoid trial because of costs and time, a defendant and his or her defense attorney may negotiate with the prosecutor for one of four different bargains. In the first type of deal, the prosecutor may reduce...
Words: 1546 - Pages: 7
...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...
Words: 1319 - Pages: 6
...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...
Words: 942 - Pages: 4
...interview a judge on his role in major criminal cases from his role beginning with first contact dealing with a plea bargain. The reason I choose to focus on that of plea bargains is because based on the videos I viewed this is the first initial contact the defendant has with the judge and most of the most memorable parts of many criminal court cases. Q: Good afternoon, one thing that stands out to me is why do we have so many plea bargains with in this country? A: Good question, for one our constitution states that everyone should offered that of a speedy trial. With that plea bargains can be looked at as such. Also if we were to send every case in front of jury many cases would never be heard and or pushed so far back that defendants will not receive the proper attention and or defense based on that fact if they had a public defender or private attorney. Q: when it comes to a plea bargain what is role? A: As a judge we oversee and supervise to make sure boundaries are set and it falls it the expectations of the community we are servicing. Also with this with have the right to accept or deny any plea bargain that is brought to us. But once a plea is made either guilty or no contest, it is our responsibility to make sure that the defendant is this decision on his own free will and in sole right mind. Once approved it will no longer go to trial. Q: When entering a plea hearing how much do you really know about case before it is presented to you and knowing more about the case...
Words: 882 - Pages: 4
...attorney. The group interacts daily, if a defendant enters a plea of guilty. The courtroom work group will hold negotiations to discuss a plea bargain. The defendant and his or her attorney can discuss a plea that will most likely have a sentence, however would not have to go to trial. The role of the prosecutor is to represent the government or the interest of the community in a criminal trial. The prosecutor’s role is to persuade and prove to the jurors that a defendant has committed a crime and is guilty. They must also ensure that no innocent person is wrongly convicted. The prosecutor must first have all of the evidence. The prosecutor analyzes the case to determine that it is legally sound and fit for trial with the outcome of a conviction. In order for the prosecutor to select the case there must be no violation of the defendants constitutional rights, no tampering of any evidence and that the defendant has no mental defects. Once they have all of these resources the prosecutor must decide if the case is a low or high priority to his or her office and will result in a conviction. The prosecutor then will decide to pursue the case. If the criteria for taking a case were less stringent there would be more criminals free to commit even more violent crimes. If the criteria was more stringent we would have more innocent people found guilty and behind bars. The changes that I would recommend to the courtroom work group, is...
Words: 334 - Pages: 2
...The criminal justice is the system of practices and institutions of governments directed at upholding social control, deterring and mitigating crime, or sanctioning those who violate laws with criminal penalties and rehabilitation efforts. Those accused of crime have protections against abuse of investigatory and prosecution powers. (Legal definition, Jan. 2013) retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/criminal_justice_system. The process of criminal justice is initial contact when a police officer observes a criminal act by patrolling the streets or citizens notifying even a victim of investigation, arrest, custody, indictments, complaints, charging bail or detention, plea bargaining, adjudication deposition and post conviction remedies. Investigation is getting accurate and relevant facts or evidence to identify the offender/suspect. Investigation is when a crime is made and “evidence is gathered to follow up on an investigation” (Forensic Enterprise 2009, retrieved from http://www.feinc.net/sci-deschtm. it takes approx 2 to 3 hours a day to gather information for about 4 days. Investigation is part of the process so police can find the criminal. An arrest warrant is made when there are criminals at the scene of the crime. A police officer makes the arrest and reads the criminal their rights and they are incarcerated. When the criminal is incarcerated there is no freedom and the criminal is unable to perform normal activities. “confinement” (Legal explanation...
Words: 900 - Pages: 4
...Plea Bargaining: Should it be abolished in the United States criminal justice system? Millions of criminals each year are absolved of charges and set back into society, endangering all citizens, while millions of innocent individuals are deprived of their right to justice. This happens due, in part, to plea bargains made for the benefit of said criminal - not only does America’s justice system ignore the needs of innocent families in exchange for their salary, but they don’t bat an eye at the further harm done by the offenders after they so recklessly let them go. Thus, plea bargaining is a major factor in the grief of many families across the nation. “The very essence of deterrence is credibility.” (Source C) Criminals set back into society...
Words: 946 - Pages: 4
...held-illegally. Writ Habeas Corpus: basically means that it is not to determine if the defendant is innocent or guilty; it represents whether the prisoner is restrained of his liberty by due process. It gives the prisoner to challenge a state conviction on constitutional grounds that related to the jurisdiction of the state court. If a defendant is denied a defense to criminal liability that had prior enactment of the law, which it is call ‘ex post facto law’ it makes it unconstitutional. A law can pass on a fact or commission of an act, ‘ex post facto law’ defines as a law which provides for the infliction of punishment upon a person for an act done which aggravates a crime or makes it greater than when it was committed, a law that changes the rules of evidence and receives less or different testimony than was required at the time of the commission of the offense in order to convict the offender. (Cited Black Law Dictionary sixth edition) Criminal process is when a person has to answer for a crime or misdemeanor that may led to an arrest. Law enforcement will investigate the crime such as if a person calls “911” and stated that a child...
Words: 947 - Pages: 4
...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....
Words: 2181 - Pages: 9
