Plea Bargain Research Paper

The Webster-Merriam definition of a plea bargain is an agreement of which someone accused of a crime admits to a less serious crime in order to be given a less severe punishment. This is a very simple and optimistic definition of a nuanced situation that can have many positive and negative effects on the subjects involved. There are three different types of plea bargains: fact bargaining, sentence bargaining, and charge bargaining. Fact bargaining is the least common where the accused may only agree to certain facts about a case. Sentence bargaining is an agreement to an amount of time, usually greatly reduced, sentenced. When the accused agrees to plead to a lesser charge, for example manslaughter versus murder, is called charge bargaining. …show more content…
For the prosecutors and judges involved this can save a lot of time and resources if they can get the accused to accept a plea bargain. Less time with sometimes lengthy trials using large amounts of taxpayer’s dollars can be avoided when using plea bargains. This leaves time to address other cases, on dockets, that are over booked and backlogged, for what in some cases is years. This also has the added benefit of allowing people accused of non-violent, first offense crimes the opportunity to avoid doing quite as much time. There are sometimes restrictions on plea bargains. Depending on the area, state, or municipality different types of plea bargains are prohibited. Some state attorney generals will ban plea bargains as morally ambiguous. There are concerns that without plea bargaining courts would become overrun with cases and shut down. Instances show that this is not accurate. Without the option to use plea bargaining as a tool court officers, prosecutors, police officers and judges, are forced to build solid cases and pursue responsible