Plea bargaining is a benefit to our criminal justice system.
Have you ever thought about where all your taxes go? A lot of your taxes go to the state, county, .
and city government to help with convicting and housing criminals. If it wasn't for plea bargaining, .
you would be paying a great deal more of your taxes than you are now. Plea bargaining operates in .
the interest of prosecutors, defense attorneys, defendants, sentencing judges, courts, prisons, victims .
and the tax payers.
The plea bargaining originally started in the early part of the nineteenth century with, the .
prosecution for violation of liquor laws. There are two types of plea bargaining: Sentence .
bargaining and Charge bargaining. Sentence bargaining is where the prosecutor agrees to .
recommend a lighter sentence if the defendant pleads guilty or no contest to the .
charge. Charge bargaining, is a method where the prosecutor agrees to drop some counts of .
charges or reduce to a less serious charge. (Bergman, Paul; Berman- Barrett, Sara, J., Publication: .
Berkley, Ca Nolo, 2003).
The rise of plea bargaining was cause by the over whelming case loads that prosecutors .
had to handle. With plea bargaining a prosecutor could devote their time to cases that .
they had strong evidence that they believed, the suspect is innocent. Public defenders also .
found themselves in the same position. (George Fisher, Stanford University press, 2003, 397pp).
Plea bargaining is a settlement of criminal cases, in an informal process of negotiations, .
between the prosecutor and the defense counsel. This is similar to an out of court .
settlement. In the settlement the defendant will agree to plead guilty to the charges. With .
this agreement of pleading guilty, the defendant will receive concession. Theses .
concessions could be anything from, a dropped charged, to lesser time of sentence. .
Along with the plea bargaining, the law enforcement could also get other information from .
