Pros And Cons Of Plea Bargaining

Since the 1960’s the number of crimes in the United States have drastically increased. Each year the number of crimes increase due to advancements in technology and through enhanced media attention that killers receive. In fact there are so many crimes occurring currently in the United States that many criminals or suspects plead guilty in order to save money and time that would be spent during a trial. The concept of pleading guilty in order to save time and money is called plea bargaining. A plea bargain is any agreement in a criminal case between the prosecutor and defendant where the defendant agrees to plead guilty to a particular charge in return for some concession from the prosecutor. The concession generally deals with the fact that the defendant might serve a lesser sentence than the one he or she could have received in a trial.
Plea bargaining is most commonly used in large cities that experience a high crime rate. These cities are generally more urbanized than most and are heavily populated. Plea bargaining is usually used in large cities due to the fact that since their crime rate is so high, many judges can’t hear all of the cases occurring. In fact many homicide cases usually end up in plea bargaining. One case that has to do with this issue is presented by Steven Phillips. The case that Mr. Philips …show more content…
Some pros would be that it saves time and money, it is a definite conviction, there’s usually a lesser charge which leads to a lighter sentence and it allows for closure. Although plea bargain does have many pros, it also has several cons. The problem with this concept is that at times, innocent people may plead guilty because they do not have the sufficient funds to pay for a lawyer or other fees, it discourages trails from occurring, the prosecution might actually overcharge someone and there can also be delays in negation that can prolong the trial time for anyone that was unable to make