Plea Bargaining
Plea Bargaining
This paper will define what a plea bargaining consist of, it will discuss what the differences between charge bargaining and sentence bargaining are. The plea bargain is one of the most commonly used methods used to obtain convictions for the prosecution, and while this is an advantage, there are also disadvantages involved. This paper will compare and contrast the advantages and disadvantages of the plea bargaining process as well as discuss how the plea bargaining process reflects or thwarts the criminal justice control and due process models of criminal justice.
According to the text, the definition of plea bargaining is, “There is no agreed-upon definition of plea bargaining, but Black’s Law Dictionary provides this definition: “the process whereby the accused and the prosecutor in a criminal case work out a mutually satisfactory disposition of the case subject to court approval [that] usually involves the defendant’s pleading guilty to a lesser offense or to only or some of the counts of a multi-count indictment in return for a lighter sentence than the possible for the graver charge” (Siegel, LJ. (2011). However, the agreement is still subject to the approval of the courts. Plea bargaining is also vital to the organization of justice because it helps to lower the case loads that the courts would have to try if every person who were ever charged with a crime was to request a trial by jury (Siegel, LJ. (2011). By using the plea bargaining method, prosecutors and defense attorneys are able to work together to come to an agreement for the defendant that eliminates the necessity to take the case to trial.
A plea bargain allows for the prosecutor to get a plea from the defendant which can count as a conviction. This also allows for the defense attorney to help their client to get a lesser sentence than they could have gotten if the case would have went to trial and the...