The criminal justice system is a complex web of interwoven legal processes, punishments, and crime classifications that all works together to protect the overall community it serves. Plea bargaining is one of these processes that is a very common means of finding an agreement between the prosecution and defendants of a particular criminal case, while also cutting down on the case traffic that would otherwise go to trial courts. In the following discussion, we take a closer examination of the legal process of plea bargaining, types of plea bargains, as well as how they can serve the overall criminal justice system.
Plea bargaining, while never easy to define, is generally referred to when a defendant pleads guilty for the crime which he/she is charged in order to receive a lesser punishment. While many defendants to avoid a court trial, will plead guilty at an arraignment hearing, many others enter a not guilty plea at this hearing, and realize afterwards, that perhaps they would rather plead guilty to get a lesser severity of sentencing. Many defendants will do this when they realize that the evidence against them is stacked, and/or the trial process is dragging on longer than they had expected. Despite the fact that plea bargaining does necessarily have the defendant admit guilt and incur punishment, the overall result of such an arrangement is typically positive all the way around. The prosecution gets a guilty plea, and therefore does not have to spend needless time and energy trying to enact probable cause; the defendant gets a reduced sentencing, and does not have to exhaust themselves with endless trial exposition; and lastly, the court system does not get encumbered by millions of cases that could otherwise be solved through plea bargaining.
Due to the fact that there are so many positives involved with plea bargaining-predominantly for saving time and energy-many entities do set forth and commit to such plea bargain arrangements. The manner that a plea bargain is effected is by the prosecuting attorney setting forth a recommendation to the court that there be a plea bargaining arrangement. The defendant’s side can then determine if they would like to agree to whatever the type of plea bargain arrangement is on the table or not. If the defendant decides to agree to the plea bargain, the prosecution notifies the judge, puts forth the three essential documents in an agreement of this kind: “a knowing waiver, a voluntary waiver, and a factual basis to support the charges to which the defendant is pleading guilty”. At this point, all court trial action is stopped; and the mutually accepted terms of the plea bargain are acknowledged and become the legal responsibility of the prosecution and defendant. The appropriate charges are put upon the defendant, with the penalty to ensue, and the criminal case is then closed.
Though a plea bargaining arrangement should seem like a very basic agreement in the criminal justice system, it is often much more complicated than that-according to a number of variables. One of them is what kind of plea bargain is offered from the prosecution to the defendant, in order to find a compromise between the two parties. While many legal resources will list only two types of plea bargain, there are actually three-with the last one just not being as applied as often as the first two. They are: charge bargain, sentence bargain, and fact bargain.
Charge plea bargaining occurs when the prosecution offers the defendant the ability to plead guilty to either only some of the charges against him/her, or a lesser charge altogether. Since there are a wide variety of crimes, crime classifications, and the respective punishments that suit them; there is also a number of penalty options a defendant can agree to, depending on the details of their case.
A sentence bargain agreement occurs when the prosecution notifies the defendant of the possible sentence they will receive if they plead guilty, prior to entering any plea at all-at the arraignment. The most often incident of sentence plea bargaining occurs in serious criminal cases in which the maximum penalty most probably will ensue for a not guilty conviction. In this case, the prosecution receives a conviction of the original charges, but offers the defendant a reduced sentencing. Depending on the jurisdiction in which the case is tried, as well as the particulars of the case itself-most often a trial judge will have to authorize a sentence bargain.
Lastly, a plea bargain can also be offered as a fact bargaining agreement, which is when the prosecution requires that the defendant admit guilt in accordance to certain facts in the crime, while limiting the introduction of other facts. While this is the least commonly used means of plea bargaining, it offers the prosecution a solid conviction and the defendant a potentially less incriminating and destructive rendering and sentencing.
Sources:
http://www.enotes.com/everyday-law-encyclopedia/plea-bargaining