Unethical Plea Negotiations

The ethics of plea negotiations raise the fundamental questions: “Are state and federal plea-bargaining systems fair? Does the ‘negotiation process,’ where the defense wields minimal bargaining power, provide for a system to achieve reliable results?” (Yaroshefsky, 2008, p. 1). Subscribers to dentonlogical perspectives consider plea negotiations unethical for several reasons. Plea negotiations are a violation of the due process rights of the defendant and they reduce their self-respect, whether or not they benefit from it. Additionally, deontologists criticize plea negotiations in their use of the defendant and the circumstances of their case to further the efficiency agenda of the judicial system because, “…It uses people as other than ends …show more content…
244). The virtue ethics perspective evaluates the actions, policies, and standards according to the moral value of the actor’s character and on their moral and ethical intentions regarding their behavior. “If criminal law’s function in society is to promote virtue, then punishment is justified only if it facilitates the development of practical reason: the tendency and motivation to do the right act because one values the proper reasons for acting rightly” (Moore, 2007, p. 79). Therefore, punishment serves an informative purpose for the offender but is not necessarily an obstacle because ethical decisions should be made not to avoid punishment but because of their inherent rightness. According to this theoretical perspective, plea negotiations would be viewed as unethical because they do not function in a manner that educations offenders since it is a malleable and negotiable process that is absent of judicial oversight and the sub sequential ethical responsibilities (Moore, …show more content…
First, they are efficient and save time and money by eliminating a trial. Second, plea negotiations guarantee a guilty verdict, which eradicates any possibility of an unknown verdict and the potential for no conviction (Vanover, 1998). Third, district attorneys s can use the plea negotiation of one defendant to build a case against another, associated individual (findlaw.com, n.d.).

Ethical dilemmas effect all parties involved, including the victim and prosecution, defendant and defense, judge, jury, court system, and society as a whole. Plea negotiations and the ethics associated with them shape societal perceptions, actions, fears, decisions, and standards of morals and ethics because they teach people to “…treat innocence as a negotiable commodity; it treats an accused as means only and not as an end and should be condemned as a perversion and distortion of the criminal justice system” (Keith,