The three basic types of plea bargaining are allowing the defendant to plead guilty to a lesser offense, a defendant who pleads guilty receives less time at the request of the prosecutor, and a defendant who agrees to plead guilty to one charge in order to avoid other charges that could be brought (Bohm & Haley, 2011). The factors that prosecutors take into consideration when determining to plea bargain are the seriousness of the crime, the defendants criminal record, and how strong of a case the prosecutor has against the defendant. My personal experiences of plea bargaining when I worked patrol were mainly with Driving Under the Influence cases. If it was the defendant’s first offense, his or her BAC was below a certain limit over .08
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It was not until a year or so into my career that a seasoned trooper pulled me aside one day in court and explained to me the reasoning behind plea bargaining. My mindset on plea bargaining is totally different now. I feel that honest people make mistakes every day and giving the opportunity to plead guilty to a lesser charge serves many purposes. Pleading guilty to a lesser charge can make the difference in the defendant being able to keep their career, family, dignity, and respect of the community. It also frees up the court system of another case, saving the taxpayers money and the prosecutor’s office valuable time. The only thing that I do not like about plea bargaining is that repeat offenders who have the luxury of retaining decent counsel often successfully negotiate plea bargain deals on the same offense multiple times. An example of this is when I had arrested a woman for DUI for driving the wrong way on the interstate. A check of her driving history revealed that she had six reckless driving convictions. All six were DUI charges reduced down to reckless driving but because she came from a prominent family, she had a high powered attorney who negotiated with the prosecutor to agree to another reckless driving. It is evident that the defendant has not learned from her
It was not until a year or so into my career that a seasoned trooper pulled me aside one day in court and explained to me the reasoning behind plea bargaining. My mindset on plea bargaining is totally different now. I feel that honest people make mistakes every day and giving the opportunity to plead guilty to a lesser charge serves many purposes. Pleading guilty to a lesser charge can make the difference in the defendant being able to keep their career, family, dignity, and respect of the community. It also frees up the court system of another case, saving the taxpayers money and the prosecutor’s office valuable time. The only thing that I do not like about plea bargaining is that repeat offenders who have the luxury of retaining decent counsel often successfully negotiate plea bargain deals on the same offense multiple times. An example of this is when I had arrested a woman for DUI for driving the wrong way on the interstate. A check of her driving history revealed that she had six reckless driving convictions. All six were DUI charges reduced down to reckless driving but because she came from a prominent family, she had a high powered attorney who negotiated with the prosecutor to agree to another reckless driving. It is evident that the defendant has not learned from her