The Use of Plea Bargaining

In my opinion, plea – bargaining is not fair. While there are both positives and negatives to the plea – bargaining process, I believe that the negatives outweigh the positives. In my opinion, the whole plea – bargaining system should be either removed or completely revamped.

Plea – bargaining isn’t completely negative. There are some positives that benefit a lot of people. When someone plea – bargains, it saves money for everyone involved. The accused saves money on legal fees like having to pay for a lawyer, and the government saves thousands on expenses. In the end, it’s the taxpayers that saves the money, since the money to pay for the various legal fees comes from taxes. Time is also saved if the accused seeks to plea – bargain. When the accused enters a guilty plea, the trail goes straight into the sentencing. With some trials going faster because of plea – bargaining, there is more time for other trials which would decrease wait times between arrest and trials.

There are a few advantages, but many more disadvantages making plea – bargaining a bad process. The main reason that I think plea – bargaining is unfair is because it gives criminals the chance to get away with lesser charges and sentences than they should probably get. For example, a person accused of murder may plea manslaughter instead to receive a less harsh punishment. I don’t think that something like this should be an option. I believe that the trial should go on as usual, with the crown having to prove that the accused committed the crime. This process can be abused by people who commit crimes on a regular basis. Plea – bargaining can actually turn out to have unfavourable results for the accused. If the defence lawyer guess incorrectly about the verdict, the accused could end up with a criminal record that he would not have normally received. What makes everything worse is that plea – bargaining has never been formally described in law. It’s open to individual interpretation, so everyone sees it in a different way.

As you can see, I believe that there are more disadvantages than advantages in the plea – bargaining process. The process is not fair to all, and should be looked at to make some changes. At the very least, it needs to be formally described by the law, so everyone has the same view on it.