Both sides in criminal cases rely on bargains at one time or another, either to avoid a stricter sentence or to get a criminal behind bars at any cost. When a defendant does not accept a plea bargain, he or she is gambling that a judge or jury will see him or her as innocent. If every defendant accepted a plea bargain, no case would ever go to trial and our justice system would be radically different.
Please respond to the following prompts:
In your opinion, at what point does the encouragement of defendants to plead guilty become unethical? Describe two examples in which this would be the case.
As a prosecutor, would you be likely to use the plea bargaining tactic to close cases? Why or why not?
Do you think plea bargains advance or hold back justice? Defend your answer.
Reference- T. Scott. (2012). Introduction to criminal justice: Current perspectives from InfoTrac® (1st ed.). Belmont, CA: Cengage.