Is Plea Bargaining Useful

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Plea-Bargaining: Is Plea-Bargaining useful or not .To figure out yes or no, we need to understand what it means, why they are used, the different plea bargains which are available, and the consequences of what happens when either of the parties does not live up to the terms of the plea agreement.
Meaning
According to Howard Abadinsky,” A Plea Bargain is a legal transaction in which a defendant pleads guilty in exchange for some form of leniency” (311). The courts within the United States use the plea-bargain agreement more and more each year. The Bureau of Justice Assistance website states that “While there are no exact estimates of the proportion of cases that are resolved through plea bargaining, scholars estimate that about 90 to 95
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One such reason would be when the courts are overcrowded. When or if the courts become too overcrowded, the state or federal government may need to hire more judges to handle the caseload, causing higher taxes to the public. If they cannot cut down the courts load, they may be forced to close. Another reason is that the prosecutors may become too overwhelmed with their caseload. This would cause them to be in court more, attending more trials, which in turn gives them less time to prepare in order to handle the cases they receive. Another reason they use plea bargaining is that the offender will be able to save both time and money. If they do not have to go to trial, they do not need to pay a lawyer as much money, fines may be cheaper, and no trial means they are free to do what they want to do possibly even commit more …show more content…
According to Sara Berman, the Charge Bargain, an offender will plead guilty to a smaller charge and the larger charge will be dismissed. This is the most common type of Plea bargain. For example, murder (larger) will change to manslaughter (smaller). In Sentence Bargaining, an offender will agree to plead guilty to their charge(s) as long as they receive a lighter sentence in return. Bargaining of this type will be reviewed and approved by a judge. Fact Bargaining occurs when an offender agrees to allow certain facts into the case while keeping other facts from being entered as evidence. This type of bargaining is the least common of all. Several courts within the United States who do not allow this type of bargaining and the larger percentage of lawyers do not like this type of plea-bargaining.
Consequences if a Plea Bargain is