Why It Is Harmful to Justice
Plea bargaining undermines the integrity of the criminal system because they no longer serve their initial intention. At its inception, plea bargaining was meant to coerce convicts to give up meaningful information for use in other high profile investigations but is nowadays used to escape trial. More so, plea bargaining derails the objective of justice enforcement because it makes serious convictions boil down to monetary valuation, as attorneys often bargain for favourable charges. Gilchrist (2016) further adds that plea bargaining promotes false confessions, which are counterintuitive concerning the Department of Justice’s core philosophy. In such cases, the innocent often gives in to plea bargains when they feel little hope of (timely) acquittal if the wrongful conviction runs its due course.
Roles
In making plea agreements, the prosecutor’s role is to evaluate the feasibility of the cases vis-à-vis the evidence provided for the plea bargain. Therefore, the prosecutor is tasked with approving concessions for acquittal to defendants with plausible defences. That includes assessing the emotional and situational need on the principle of “bargaining hardest when the case is weakest” (Buchanan, 2020). On the other hand, the defence attorney’s role is to advance their client’s interests through making a plea and quoting recommended plea agreements.
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Benefits and costs
Plea bargaining helps the judicial institutions in areas with high crime rates reduce case backlogs (Buchanan, 2020). Many also argue that plea bargaining reduces the financial burden because it minimizes the need for juries. However, plea bargains cost the judicial process clarity, and sometimes integrity. The reason being, a successful bargain avoids jury trial, which implies consciously burying a significant portion of the truth. The negotiations also increase chances of manipulation of information.
Supreme Court
Through many cases (such as Brady v. the United States, 397 U.S. 742 (1970), the Supreme Court considers plea bargains constitutional (Harvard Law Review, 2017). For as long as the defendant’s guilty pleas are voluntary, and the defendant is aware of the consequences, a defendant has the right to register their plea to the prosecutor. Involuntary concessions occur quite often, but in many cases, there isn’t enough evidence to overturn the sentence after the plea bargain often (Schiff & Nobles, 2020). Such as the case of involuntary plea occurred in Santobello v. New York, 404 U.S. 257, 262 (1971), and led to the Court vacating the earlier judgement, with the prosecutor’s entire staff being held responsible (Demko et al., 2017).
From the class readings
I find the subject of plea bargaining strongly tied to the Fifth Amendment from “Criminal Defendant’s Rights” in chapter ten. The issue is salient because of the many cases of defendants being denied their rights due to racial, religious or and gender bias nowadays. The Fifth Amendment is essential in cases where the defendant presents evidence for a plea bargain, but the prosecutor incriminates them to admit incriminating evidence. All through plea bargain deals, I think the Fifth and Six Amendments should be honoured, because unless they are, many innocent defendants might be denied justice.
Critical questions
Would you recommend criminal prosecution on the attorney of a defendant whose bargain plea has just been discovered to be involuntary?
Should the Supreme Court except some class of cases, such as drug, rape and murder from bargain plea?
References
Buchanan, K. (2020, March). “Plea Bargaining: Comparative Summary.” Library of Congress. Retrieved Https://Www.Loc.Gov/Law/Help/Plea-Bargaining/Plea-Bargaining.Pdf
Demko, O. S., Kolesnikova, V. N., Yu, G., Malimon, L. A., & Spektor, L. A. (2017). Institute of Plea Bargain: Features of Legal Regulation. Journal of Policy and Law , 10 , 187.
Gilchrist, G., M. (2016). “Trial Bargaining.” Iowa Law Review. Retrieved Https://Ilr.Law.Uiowa.Edu/Print/Volume-101-Issue-2/Trial-Bargaining/
Harvard Civil Rights – Civil Liberties Law Review. “ Plea Bargaining and The Supreme Court.” (2017 November). Retrieved Https://Harvardcrcl.Org/Plea-Bargaining-And-The-Supreme-Court/
Nobles, R., & Schiff, D. (2020, July). The Supervision of Guilty Pleas by The Court of Appeal of England and Wales–Workable Relationships and Tragic Choices. In Criminal Law Forum (Pp. 1-40). Springer Netherlands.
