Plea Bargaining: The Experiences of Prosecutors, Judges, and Defense Attorneys by Milton Heumann (original) (raw)

An Analysis of the Use of Plea Bargaining in Criminal Cases: Pros and Cons

April-May 2023

The defendant agrees to plead guilty to a lower charge or to a reduced sentence in return for avoiding the possibility of receiving a sentence that is more severe. This is a widespread practice in the criminal justice system. The usage of plea bargaining in criminal cases is analyzed and examined in this research article, along with the benefits and drawbacks connected with this practice. According to the findings of the research, the process of entering into a plea bargain has a number of benefits, such as the speedy resolution of cases and the reduction in costs; however, it also has a number of disadvantages, such as the potential for coercion, unequal bargaining power, and the possibility of injustice.

Toward a Common Law of Plea Bargaining

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2013

PLEA bargaining has been quite accurately described as "an informal, administrative, inquisitorial process of adjudication." 2 Those who brag of the superiority of the American criminal justice system often praise its adversarial, as opposed to inquisitorial, nature.' Yet for approximately ninetyfive percent of all defendants, the prosecutor is, for all practical purposes, the only judge they will encounter. 4 The prosecutor-judges who resolve these cases do so without necessarily referring to how any other case was resolved and do not follow any particular procedure, formal or informal, in deciding how to make offers.s Their decisions are not subject to review and largely avoid public scrutiny. 6 Defense lawyers, in part for reasons of their own making, are ill equipped for whatever idiosyncratic process a particular prosecutor's office

Comments on the history of plea bargaining

Law & Soc'y Rev., 1978

Both Alschuler and Friedman provide valuable data on the history of plea bargaining, showing the emergence of the guilty plea in the mid-nineteenth century and a large increase in plea bargaining after 1900. If this material is to aid our understanding of contemporary ...

Plea Bargaining: A Challenging Issue In The Law And Economics

2015

Plea bargaining is defined as an agreement between the prosecutor and defendant whereby the defendant pleads guilty in exchange for a more lenient sentence. The literature on law and economics has been treating the plea bargaining as a desirable way of accomplishing the maximum prevention with minimum costs for criminal justice system. It is controversial issue for legal scholars who find the plea bargaining a “necessary evil”, demanding its reform or even abolishment. The main aim of the paper is to contribute to a better understanding of the plea bargaining, not only by discussing some of economic reasons affecting both parties when deciding to bargain, but also to provide more in-depth understanding of the wider context in which bargaining is taking place (powerful role of the state attorney, complex relationships between defendants and their attorneys-at-law, eff ects of bargains on third parties, desirable role of the court and the issue of innocence). Particular attention is g...