Criminal justice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Criminal justice - Essay Example This paper addresses the issues surrounding plea bargaining. Research show that 95% of all cases taken to the American court of law are involved in plea bargaining. In plea bargaining, the defendant settles a case on certain stated terms and conditions. The defendant is asked by the prosecution to plead guilty for a certain crime in exchange of maybe a reduced or even suspended sentence. The process starts when a crime is committed. Formal investigation is conducted and this is used in driving the defendant to plead guilty in a court of law. At this point they are informed of their right to have an attorney and given full disclosure on the nature of charges. Plea bargaining has several benefits to the court systems and the defendant. The defendant on one hand is issues with several benefits which entices them to settle. For instance, a defendant facing several multiple charges may who in case of a full trial may get multiple sentences. With plea bargaining such a defendant may succeed in having several of the multiple charges dropped or get reduced sentences (Lippke 2011, 358). This kind of an arrangement have several cost related advantages to the defendant because it reduce the duration taken to resolve a certain case and this come with reduced attorney charges. The defense on the other hand does benefit from this process. This is because plea bargaining involves less work and takes lesser time compared to full court trial but they still get the same kind of pay. The prosecution has the advantage of driving the trial in the manner which they see being most fit for different cases. As a matter of fact, the court system heavily relies on the pleas in order to continue being operation. This is because it makes it possible for a judge to dispose one case within a short time and moves to the next one (Siegel 2010, 231). Plea