Plea Bargaining Case Study

Based on the aforementioned statements in this week’s assignment, I agree with the second statement regarding plea bargaining being right and proper. Like any tool utilized to find a solution, or to compromise, plea bargaining can be abused. A majority of the time I feel that plea bargaining is a great tool that allows for a reduction in the number of trails that judges oversee (Plea Bargaining, 2009). Moreover, I believe that our justice system is flooded and congested with pending trials and lacks the resources needed to pursue each trial with an equal amount of attention (Plea Bargain, 2009).
Although this topic remains controversial, the Supreme Court has repeatedly rejected arguments regarding the unconstitutionality of plea bargaining (Plea Bargaining, 2009). Plea bargains do not require that a defendant waive the three constitutional rights protected by the Fifth and Sixth Amendments and therefore I find that overall, plea bargaining is right and proper (Plea bargain, 2009). Two key Supreme Court cases help …show more content…
United States, 397 U.S. 742 (1970) is a great example plea bargaining and regarding a person’s constitutional rights. In Brady, the court held that waivers must be both ‘voluntary’ and ‘intelligent’. Furthermore, Brady resulted in the voluntariness involving a plea of guilt be governed by standards (Brady v. United States, 1970). Therefore, these standards allow for a judge to consider and examine the totality of circumstances involved in the case to further ensure that the plea is voluntary, intelligently given, and knowingly made, prior to accepting a plea of guilt from the accused standards (Brady v. United States, 1970). Then in McCarthy v. United States 394 U.S. 459 (1969), the Supreme Court added that in order for a person to plead guilty, that person must know the consequences involved in doing so; referring to Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Criminal