Plea Bargaining
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In recent years, plea bargaining has been used with increased frequency in the American courts. The proponents of this practice argue that it expedites cases. Because the criminal justice system is overloaded, it is claimed that plea bargaining is necessary in order to reduce the case load. However, in principle, plea bargaining is a dangerous practice as it relates to the individual. Instead of seeking to determine the true guilt or innocence of an accused criminal, plea bargaining simply trades an easy penalty for an admission of guilt. In this way, it encourages unequal treatment of defendants. Instead of imposing a standard punishment for a crime, plea bargaining is concerned with simply negotiating a guilty plea and thereby getting the case through the courts as soon as possible. Furthermore, plea bargaining provides unequal treatment because it allows many criminals to get off with lighter sentencing than they otherwise would receive. Because of this, the practice does little in terms of supporting the values which are the foundations of modern criminal justice, namely retribution, deterrence and rehabilitation. In short, plea bargaining is contrary to the ideals that the American judicial system is supposed to stand for. Plea bargaining occurs when a defense lawyer works out an agreement with the prosecutor. This agreement generally stipulates that the accused will plead guilty to a particular charge in return for a lighter sentence than that which might b
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d that plea bargaining allows the courts to get less serious cases out of the way so that more time can be devoted to the serious ones (p. A42).
The most compelling argument for supporting the practice of plea bargaining is that it helps to expedite the processes of the courts. It allows judges to reach quick decisions and sentence criminals while avoiding lengthy court trials. Prosecutors and defense lawyers, as well as judges, benefit from this type of expediency. Thus, it has been noted that "when the defendant pleads guilty, defense counsel collects one more fee and moves on to the next case; the trial judge removes one more trial from his calendar; the prosecutor reduces his caseload and adds one more 'guilty' to his list of courtroom triumphs" (Bazelon, 1988, p. 182). The defendant in a plea bargain case generally benefits from the practice as well. Specifically, the defendant usually gets a lighter sentence than might otherwise be imposed in a jury trial. In fact, most defendants will jump at the chance for a plea bargain, unless they have good reason to believe they will be able to convince a jury of their innocence. In addition to bargaining for a guilty plea which will expedite the case, many defendants are encou
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2728
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)
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