Question

What are your opinions on plea bargaining? Should this process be allowed to continue or do you believe every case should be taken to trial for the actual crime that was committed? Why or why not? Keep in mind the tremendous backlog of cases that already exists.

Answer 1

After learning about plea bargaining I have determined that majority of criminal cases are resolved via this procedure before even reaching a trial. In plea bargaining, defendant agrees to plead guilty for charges lesser than what they could face in trial. This process ensures that some of the serious charges are dismissed and defendant could accept a lenient sentence.

In my opinion, plea bargaining process should be allowed to continue. The reasons behind my opinion are as follows:

· Plea Bargaining alleviates the need to schedule and hold a trial: This relives judges from adding up on the pile of overcrowded dockets. Apart from it prison overcrowding is also addressed by charging defendants with low-level crimes.

· It saves judicial economy and it also reduces the utilization already limited resources.

· Defendants have an opportunity for a lenient sentence/ less severe penalties in plea bargaining in comparison to stricter sentence that they can get for more serious charges in trial court.

Apart from several opportunities of plea bargaining, there is one severe drawback of this procedure. In case a defendant is innocent of the crime but still feel compelled to take the lighter sentence rather than asserting their constitutional right to a fair trial because they are unable to afford legal defence.

However, after considering the tremendous backlog of cases that already exists, I am in favour of plea bargaining process and in my opinion it should be allowed to continue.