Plea Bargaining Argumentative Analysis

Plea bargaining is being scrutinized and criticized for a variety of reasons. Many believe that plea bargaining is fair as it gives a possible offender the ability to negotiate a less severe sentence. If the offender is in fact innocent all he has to do is go trial and prove it and he will be released. However plea bargaining has contributed to the imprisoning of innocent individuals. The prosecutor also has an unfair advantage over the defense thus making plea bargaining an unfair practice. These reasons are why plea bargaining is a negative practice and should be changed.
Please bargaining is the “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.” This arrangement can have the defense receive a less severe sentencing such as
The use of plea bargaining can coerce “innocent defendants to plead guilty” (Guidorizzi, 2013, p. 197). Being arrested is a frightening experience for anyone. If an innocent person gets arrested and is told he can get a harder sentence if he risks going to trial; he may accept a bargain for a crime he did not commit. This comes from the fear of going to prison for even longer. Unfortunately this has happened and continues to happen. Criminologists suspect that “between 2 percent and 8 percent” of innocent individuals plead guilty. That means that at least forty-four thousand innocent individuals are behind bars and most from plea bargaining. An example is when Brian Banks was wrongfully convicted of rape and kidnapping “after accepting a plea bargain under the advisement of his original lawyer” (Rakoff, 2014). He served five years of that sentence. This can have long lasting negative effects for anyone that goes through this. Because plea bargaining has caused innocent people to go to prison, it is a negative practice and it should be