Plea Bargaining Research Paper

This allows the defendant with an opportunity to avoid the risk of being convicted with more serious charges in a criminal court. A plea bargain can either be horizontal or vertical whereby in the vertical plea, depends on how the case has been reduced in their seriousness while horizontal plea deals with the number of charges that have been reduced. The prosecutor is also allowed the time to focus on more serious cases since the number of trials that the judge needs to see is reduced thus keeping the court calendar light. These avoid the overloading of the court and prevent it from shutting down due to inefficiency. Plea bargaining, therefore, can define as the agreement made between the defense and the prosecution whereby the accused is allowed to plea from their first stand of not guilty to guilty so that the prosecution can reduce the charges if they plead that they are indeed guilty for the crime (Heumann 2).

Since with plea bargaining, there is no involvement of detail admission that the defendant is guilty, it generally requires the defendant to admit that they are guilty and that will be enough to satisfy the element of their crime, and they don’t need to under any oath (Garrett 1417). Confession, on the other hand, requires more. The defendants might, however, seek relief from the judge in case the prosecutor default on plea bargains. After that, the judge will decide on what to do to the case. First, they can allow the defendant to withdraw the guilty pleas in which they pleaded guilty to the crime. And in most cases, if there is no evidence the jury normally finds the defendant not guilty of the crime.

With a plea to bargain, however, the jury will be certainly convicted since they will be aware of the crime that has been committed by that individual. This allows the assignment of penalty to the defendant in accordance to the crime they have committed. This gives the prosecutor to concentrate on more serious cases since they have time to do so. Secondly, it helps in providing more resources to the community. It speeds up the process hence does not allow the defendants to stay in jail waiting for their trials. Plea bargaining can also serve as an effecting negotiating tool. The defender can be allowed to give testimony about the co-defender. This allows the prosecutor to put all people that are involved in the serious case to be in prison and allow the other defender to pursue maximum sentence against the co-defender they feel are more responsible for the crime that had occurred.

Plea bargaining prevents a case from getting worse. After which the prosecutor will decide on the penalty they will be imposed to rather than going through the trial which will consume a lot of time, and the defender knows that they are guilty and besides there is enough evidence that can prove their guilt. Although plea bargaining is continuing to spread across the globe, it has some cons that come with it. First, it can lead to innocent people pleading guilty (Kinkartz 35). This allows the criminal record to be created for an innocent person. If an innocent person agrees to plea bargain to cut the expenses they will incur during the trial; their agreement will mean that they are guilty hence they will have a criminal record.

Thus instead of trying to secure justice for the crime that has been committed, there will only be a deal that will be made between the prosecutor and the defender, and after the defender has agreed to be guilty, no procedures will be followed to render justice for the crime. Even if there will be a penalty, the penalty will be so soft for the crime that has been committed. In conclusion, plea bargaining can be of benefit to both parties if it is used properly, that is the seriousness of the crime should be looked at. However, if it is used even in more serious crimes, it can lead to injustice in the society where a criminal does not get the punishment necessary for the crime they have committed.