While plea bargaining is beneficial mostly for the state, it can sometimes be a curse for a defendant. For example, an innocent person may have some damning evidence against him or her even he or she is innocent. The prosecution will often pressure the defendant into believing that the jury will not find him not guilty. Therefore, the defendant will agree to the plea bargain and opt for a lesser sentence believing him or she does not have a chance of winning with a trial by jury. “Statistics show that 94% of state criminal cases and slightly more than 96% of federal criminal cases are eventually resolved through a negotiated plea.” (Schmalleger
CON I stand in firm negation of the resolution Resolved: In the United States, Plea Bargaining Undermines the Criminal Justice System. To clarify on today’s debate here are the following definition. Plea bargain: Is a deal offered by the prosecutor as an incentive for a defendant to plead guilty. Plea bargain can either based on charge bargaining or sentence bargaining. Undermines: To weaken or ware away Contention 01: Plea Bargaining gives us the right to speedy trial One of our constitutional rights as Americans to a speedy trial.
It is the attorney’s job to work in the best interest of his or her client. I believe that it is negligent on the part of the attorney who does nothing to really assist his client looking for a quick solution. Many people are not aware of some repercussions of taking no contest plea agreement. Some result in civil suits where the victim’s family can file suit against the defendant and when presented in front of a jury guilt is not an issue because of the plea. Many jurors will just be focused on the amount of money to award the victim.
According to Law Info (1995-2014), “The biggest drawback to plea bargaining is for the innocent defendant who decides to plead guilty to a lesser charge in order to avoid the risk that he or she will be found guilty at trial (The Pros and Cons of Plea Bargaining). Plea bargaining has led to poor police investigations which lead to defense attorneys who do not want to deal with poorly prepared cases (Law Info, 1995-2014). Another downside to the bargaining system is that defendants are not tried for their offenses and provided due process. The defendant does not get their time in
Plea-bargaining is essentially an agreement between the prosecutor and the accused in which the accused pleads guilty in exchange for a lesser sentence or a reduced charge. It is a recognized procedure in the criminal justice system that aims to reduce the clogging of cases in court. It is said that aside from the plea bargaining, the criminal justice system, state laws and the US Constitution provides the accused with different legal defenses which he can use to avoid conviction or to relieve him from criminal liability. These defenses are negative defenses such as the denial of the crime or affirmative defenses such as by admitting the crime but alleging circumstances such as self-defense, insanity, provocation, and violation of the right
According to the Legal Resource Library, “The biggest drawback to plea bargaining is for the innocent defendant who decides to plead guilty to a lesser charge in order to avoid the risk that he or she will be found guilty at trial.” Plea bargaining requires the defendant to waive three rights that he/she is normally protected by until the Fifth and Sixth Amendments: the right to a jury trial, the right against self-incrimination, and the right to confront hostile witnesses. (Cornell.edu) Some people may try to argue that plea bargaining in unconstitutional, however, this argument has been repeatedly overruled by the Supreme Court. There are a lot of controversial issues surrounding plea bargaining, and victims’ rights groups are arguing that the victim should have inputs and a voice into the bargain that is being established between the prosecutor and the defendant. Victim rights activists also feel that defendants undermine the criminal justice system in its entirety and defendants are let off too
Also the defense will ask for a change of venue to help with juries with believing someone is innocent. This defense attorney is determining to keep people innocent until they are proven guilty. He does not want someone who is innocent to have their name slander. He is an attorney for DUI cases which is kind of pretty hard to prove their innocent. This criminal law website is determined to keep people who are under investigation or have already been arrested, to keep their record clean and out of jail.
A plea bargaining allows both parties to avoid a long criminal trail and it may also allow the criminal defendant to avoid risk of conviction trail on a more serious charge. A defendant entering a plea must sign a statement certifying that they comprehend the plea, and are entering into the agreement voluntary and without begin pressured. An Example will be if a defendant is charged with a felony theft charged, the conviction would be imprisonment in a state prison. The offender may have the opportunity to plead guilty to a misdemeanor theft charge, which will carry over to jail time. If a judge perceives that the plea bargain is too lenient the judge has the right to reject the plea and order of the prosecuting and the defense to renegotiate.
It is not considered jury tampering because the prosecution and defense attorneys have the right to know the credibility of the person that would be deciding the fate of the defendant. Why or why not? The only way that I would see it being jury tampering is if after the jurors are chosen, someone starts threatening or trying to coerce the witness to not testify at the trial. Lawyers can also exercise a challenge for cause claiming the juror could not be
On one hand, several of the justices feel that there is no need for the constitution to resolve this case; rather current state whistle-blower statutes can handle this. On the other hand, Ceballos’ attorney argued that “when civil service employees witness or investigate police brutality, disaster preparedness failings and corruption, they need the full protection of the law so that ‘they should not be required to tell their supervisors only what they want to hear,’ for fear of retaliation.” (Mears). The Supreme Court is expected to rule in this case around