Plea Bargaining
Plea Bargaining
CJA/224
erick coutino
January/9/2012
Carl Heintz
Plea Bargaining
According to Cornell University Law School" (2010), “plea bargains are agreements between defendants and prosecutors where defendants agree to plead guilty to some or all of the charges against them in exchange for concessions from the prosecutors” (para. 1). Plea bargains allows for prosecutors and judges to focus their time on more important cases. The way plea-bargains work with prosecutors is reducing or dismissing certain crimes committed by the defendant. The defendants part in a plea bargain is to give up information about the crimes committed, such as where were stolen goods are hid and how the crime was committed. The defendant may also have to confess to other crimes, turn in other defendants, and testify in court. In some jurisdictions prosecutors and defendants work with judges to work out a sentence for the crime committed. The judge always has the last say and rules on what he or she wants, but in federal courts, unlike other courts the judge does not have to take recommendations from the prosecution. Plea bargains have become somewhat controversial among society. Individuals believe that plea bargains allow criminals to get off easy with the crimes they committed. Just because a defendant is willing to confess about his or her crimes, it does not erase the harm and inconvenience it has caused the innocent individuals involved. Therefore, a defendant can only plead guilty to a crime and cannot plead or try to prove their innocence. Charge bargaining and sentence bargaining are a type of plea bargain. Charge bargaining involves the defendant plea guilty to a specific crime in exchange to lessen the severity of the crime against him. The defense presents the charge bargain to the prosecution, which they decide whether or not they will accept it. A good example is if an individual is charged with first-degree murder his defense can charge bargain to reduce charges
CJA/224
erick coutino
January/9/2012
Carl Heintz
Plea Bargaining
According to Cornell University Law School" (2010), “plea bargains are agreements between defendants and prosecutors where defendants agree to plead guilty to some or all of the charges against them in exchange for concessions from the prosecutors” (para. 1). Plea bargains allows for prosecutors and judges to focus their time on more important cases. The way plea-bargains work with prosecutors is reducing or dismissing certain crimes committed by the defendant. The defendants part in a plea bargain is to give up information about the crimes committed, such as where were stolen goods are hid and how the crime was committed. The defendant may also have to confess to other crimes, turn in other defendants, and testify in court. In some jurisdictions prosecutors and defendants work with judges to work out a sentence for the crime committed. The judge always has the last say and rules on what he or she wants, but in federal courts, unlike other courts the judge does not have to take recommendations from the prosecution. Plea bargains have become somewhat controversial among society. Individuals believe that plea bargains allow criminals to get off easy with the crimes they committed. Just because a defendant is willing to confess about his or her crimes, it does not erase the harm and inconvenience it has caused the innocent individuals involved. Therefore, a defendant can only plead guilty to a crime and cannot plead or try to prove their innocence. Charge bargaining and sentence bargaining are a type of plea bargain. Charge bargaining involves the defendant plea guilty to a specific crime in exchange to lessen the severity of the crime against him. The defense presents the charge bargain to the prosecution, which they decide whether or not they will accept it. A good example is if an individual is charged with first-degree murder his defense can charge bargain to reduce charges