Should plea bargaining be abolished?

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere"

- Martin Luther King Jr.

"A plea bargain allows the parties to agree on the outcome and settle the pending charge. (Plea Bargain)" Plea bargaining is a new way of obtaining a conviction. A trial and jury are becoming less and less common: "most estimates are that approximately 90% of all criminal cases are settled through plea bargains. (Heisse)" There are different types of bargaining, and there are several advantageous factors about bargaining agreements for the defendant. There are also many beneficial details with regard to the prosecutor and his case. Plea bargaining is perhaps more flawed then beneficial in the eyes of justice. It could possibly be viewed as duress, an illegal coercion. It is also unfair to underprivileged accused. When people commit offences to society, they should be punished to the full extent of the law written for those offences.

Never Take a Plea dogtags, CopWatch table, Liberty...

mayor sheila dixon at delegation meeting

Plea minutissima

Plea bargaining is just one more way that lets defendants get through our court system lightly.

Plea negotiations may occur at anytime after the arrest, usually on the telephone or in the crown prosecutor's office. The bargaining usually takes place in a pre trial resolution meeting between each party. Judges are not involved in the discussions, but once they are accepted, they are presented in a formal court. There are three essential parts of a plea bargain. The first one is a person knowingly has waived their right to a trial. The next is that the decision to waived said rights is voluntary. The third and final point is that there most be a true basis to support the charges to which the defendant is pleading guilty to. There are three parts of negotiations when bargaining a plea: charge bargaining, sentence bargaining and fact bargaining. Charge bargaining is when the...