Plea Bargains In Law Enforcement

Improved Essays
Being in law enforcement for several years I come across several suspects and defendants who expresses the criminal justice process moves like a snail and is always unpredictable. Imagine if a significant amount of cases was going to trial instead of over 90% of felony cases are plea bargained (Bohm, R., Haley, K.,n.d). Nevertheless, there are three types of plea bargains and prosecutors tend to have factors to decide if the plea bargain is in the best interest or what’s the better plea bargain to make depending on the situation. The first example, a defendant might plead guilty to trespass and a misdemeanor vandalism charge instead of burglary charge because burglary carries felony charges. Second, if expressed by the prosecutor

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Review: In 1975, Attorney General, Avrum Gross, declared a prohibition on plea-bargaining in Alaska. Michael Rubinstein and Teresa J. White from National Institute of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice were assigned to study the impact of Gross’s decision. Their first task was looking at whether the policy had been carried out by the courts in Alaska, and second, was what the effects were on Alaska’s criminal justice system. This involved conducting 400 interviews of the surrounding judges in Alaska and collecting information from 3,586 case files. Overall their goal was to create a detailed description of the Alaska system during the “before and after” years.…

    • 898 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Plea-bargaining is an important process in the criminal justice system and are used to prevent lengthy trials. It is defined as “the process of negotiating a guilty plea involving either charge bargaining, where the prosecutor will offer to reduce the severity of the charges or the number of counts in exchange for a guilty plea, or sentence bargaining, where the prosecutor will agree to recommend leniency at the sentencing stage” (Hemmens, Brody, & Spohn, 2013). However, there are both pros and cons with plea-bargaining. One reason why plea-bargaining is an advantage to the court system is because it helps to relieve caseloads since the prosecutor’s workload decreases when a defendant takes the bargain. Also, when a defendant goes this route,…

    • 421 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As criminology majors, we must learn the inner workings of the court system as well as the crucial courtroom players. We have all watched series such as Law and Order, CSI, American Crime, etc., but they give us a false sense of what an actual courtroom setup looks like. Unlike these shows, there are various steps that must be taken before the defendant is prosecuted. There is the arrest, initial appearance, bail is set, either a grand jury or preliminary hearing is conducted, arraignment occurs, along with all pre-trial motions being heard before trial, a trial is then started, a sentence is given, and sometimes the defendant appeals the charge. In contrast, assembly line justice cases end at the arraignment phase since the defendant accepts a plea deal.…

    • 785 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The plea bargaining process is a negotiation between two parties to give information for a lessened sentence. A prosecutor will offer the defendant either a lessened sentence, dropped charge, or recommend a certain charge to the judge. In return, the defendant either pleads guilty or no contest. Plea bargaining is used often because people want to spend less time for their crime. With DNA and all the new ways to get evidence, there is a good chance of proving someone did the crime.…

    • 318 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Great Essays

    Plea Bargain Advantages

    • 2557 Words
    • 11 Pages

    Thus, it is imperative that all actors in the criminal justice and court systems use plea bargain correctly every time. Plea Bargains have changed the appearance of the criminal justice and court system over time. Having a fluid process for plea bargains has become vital in the criminal justice system. The use of a plea bargain will impact…

    • 2557 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Like Fogle, many others who commit less violent felonies and misdemeanors argue for a plea bargain in order to avoid facing…

    • 601 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    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).…

    • 533 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Plea Bargaining Process

    • 1131 Words
    • 5 Pages

    What is the role of the prosecutor in the plea bargaining process? The role of the prosecutor in a Plea-bargaining process is to get the defendant to come to an agreement to where the defendant pleads guilty to some or many of the charges filed against them therefore bypassing a costly trial preceding. The prosecutor usually offers a reduced punishment if the defendants agrees to their terms. In some jurisdictions prosecutors and the defendant can work with the judges to help them determine what the sentence they will get if they accept the plea bargain. As prosecutor, what would you recommend in an attempt to resolve the case and why?…

    • 1131 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This is why plea bargains are a good thing and should be kept in the criminal justice system. While they are not…

    • 653 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Evidence Interpretation

    • 1578 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Evidence Interpretation Over the years, there have been several cases that have been resolved with a false guilty plea or cases where a guilty party was not convicted of a crime. There are various elements that play a role in solving cases; evidence is a one of these key elements. Many factors can determine if the evidence submitted before a court of law is accurate such as how the evidence is collected, if proper protocell was followed before the laboratory’s handling of the evidence, and if the evidences was accurately processed by the crime scene laboratory by various forensic scientists. Furthermore, with the advances in technology in today’s society, various pieces of evidence such a DNA analysis have been considered a crucial element…

    • 1578 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Going to trial is perceived as risky because it is impossible to predict what a jury will decide. As a result, many defendants enter pleas for a lesser charge instead of taking that risk. For example, in 1963, Henry Alford was indicted on first degree murder charges. Although he plead guilty to the crime, he maintained his innocence. The plea deal offered him a life sentence in place of capital punishment.…

    • 494 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Plea bargaining is one of the most important factors of our criminal justice system. About 95 percent of criminal cases result in a plea deal. What is a plea bargain one may ask? A plea bargain is a type of legal contract between the defendant and the prosecuting attorney of the defendant’s case. It provides a leniency in a sentence or lesser chargers for the defendant if he pleads guilty to his case.…

    • 2052 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The advent of plea bargaining in the legal system in the past century has rendered the classic "trial" virtually obsolete. Plea bargaining1 is a crucial feature of our criminal justice system, as approximately 95% of convictions that occur within a year of arrest are obtained by a guilty plea. For at least a century, the institution of plea bargaining' has been a central feature of the American system of criminal justice. In September 203, the Justice Department again revised its guidelines regarding plea bargains. Lawyers and non-lawyers alike have generally assumed that the reason for this is the enormous size of the case load in relation to the available legal personnel.…

    • 1547 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The District Attorney has discretionary power to decide the disposition of cases. One of the primary ways that the District Attorney uses its’ discretion is in how he processes plea-bargaining. The District Attorney may reduce a defendants’ exposure to a crime if he provides some pieces of information that he needs to prosecute a bigger player in the narcotics trade. It has been said that the administration of justice is a selective process in which only those cases that will not overload the system will ultimately be prosecuted (Cole, 1970)…

    • 1475 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    There are numerous practices that are used in the criminal justice system. Professionals need to determine which theoretical approaches works best to help the system. Searching empirical studies and then utilizing that information can help determine the best theoretical practices. Correctional facilities should use different practices for restorative justice, crime prevention, and corrections to improve our criminal justice system. Defining different theoretical approaches can also improve rehabilitative services in correctional facilities.…

    • 1214 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays