Plea Bargaining We have all gone to the super market and used their express checkout lane in the hopes of getting in and out in a hurry. But something most of the general public is unaware of is that the American Criminal Court System has its own version of the express check-out lane. Plea Bargaining is the criminal courts systems version of an express check-out, and ninety five percent of the people who are channeled through the criminal courts will never go to trial; instead they are recommended, encouraged, and in many cases coerced to accept a plea bargain (PBS, 2004). When a defendant is accused of a crime and appears in criminal court in most cases he or she is fairly uneducated as to the law, and even to their own case. The defendant, if he is unable to pay for his own attorney is assigned a court appointed attorney to represent them. Usually, at the first or second appearance in court, the court prosecutor will offer the defendant a plea bargain or a charge bargain. Plea bargains are when a prosecutors offers the defendants a smaller sentence in return for a guilty plea, a charge bargain is when prosecutors offers to drop or reduce some of the charges, which would lead to a reduced sentence, and again this is done in return for a guilty plea. The guilty plea is expected to be given the same day that the bargain is offered. On the surface this appears to be a fair exchange with everyone getting what they want, but instead it is rather hard to tell because plea bargains, unlike trials, do not take place before the public eye. The only people involved in plea bargains are the prosecutor, the defendant and his attorney. Once a bargain is reached the judge is informed and the defendant is brought forward to make his plea. The judge gives a quick little speech asking if the defendant is aware of what rights the defendant is waiving and if this is what the defendant wants to do. The defendant can either go home or to jail or prison according to the terms of the plea bargain (PBS, 2004) Plea bargaining raises concerns for many reasons and the debate about how frequent they are used in criminal courts is ongoing. Some of the concerns address the issue with the plea bargaining being used to such a large extent in the criminal justice system. In the 1970’s; the “ratio of felony cases that went to trial was about one in twelve, today, estimates put the number at fewer than one in 40” (Bill of Rights, 2012). Critics claim that defendants who refuse to accept a plea bargain are punished more severely upon going to trial and the court renders a guilty verdict. In most cases if a defendant refuses a plea bargain and goes to trial and loses, he will get a sentence two to four times more then what he was offered in plea bargain. Supporters state that plea bargaining and charge bargaining are necessary in order for the criminal courts system in order to process the overwhelming amount of people who are channeled through the criminal system. Plea Bargains are good for all parties involved, with the defendant getting a reduced sentence and the court system processing their cases in a quick and efficient manner. Supporters also claim that without plea bargaining the criminal court system would not be able to deal with all the cases it must in a timely manner. It is also claimed that the criminal courts would have to receive much more funding for the courts to allow a larger amount of defendants to go to trial. One thing that both sides agree on is that plea bargaining was not the intent when the constitution and bill of rights were drafted. For a defendant to accept a plea bargain he must give up three of his constitutional rights, the right to a trial by jury, the right to face his accusers, and the right to bring witnesses to his defense. The defendant is forced into a position to make a decision that will have a huge impact on their
