8/13/2019 Crime Final

1/8

Castaneda 1

Caleb Castaneda

Professor Chrappa

Crime and Punishment

11 December 2013

Against Plea Bargains

It is a common occurrence in any courtroom in the country: A defendant is accused of a

crime !e pleads guilty A sentencing date is assigned and the court mo"es on to the ne#t case

$hat is not seen by the obser"er is %hat happened in the days and %ee&s before this scene

played itself out: charges %ere filed' negotiations occurred bet%een defense and prosecution' and

the defendant agreed to plead guilty to a lesser charge in e#change for sa"ing the state the time

and effort to prosecute fully' not to mention the ris& that it might lose the case (his process is

called )plea bargaining* I %ant to suggest that the process of plea bargaining is an affront to

+ustice' for at least three reasons: 1, it denies "ictims the right to see their "ictimi-er brought to

complete +ustice. 2, it denies many accused their )day in court*' as they are put under pressure

by their counsel to plead guilty. 3, it allo%s the state to a"oid the necessary tas& of prioriti-ing its

case load

In order to understand whyI ob+ect to Plea Bargaining' it is necessary to understand +ust

%hy it is that it occurs in the first place In other %ords' if both parties agree to the plea bargain'

it must be in each side/s percei"ed interests ust %hat is the percei"ed interest of the prosecution

and the defense that %ould cause them to come to a plea bargain in the first place

According to the American Bar Association' plea bargaining is a practical step for all

parties )Defendants can a"oid the time and cost of defending themsel"es at trial' the ris& of

harsher punishment' and the publicity a trial could in"ol"e* American Bar Association,

ean%hile' )(he prosecution sa"es the time and e#pense of a lengthy trial* and the )burden of

8/13/2019 Crime Final

2/8

Castaneda 2

conducting a trial on e"ery crime charged* American Bar Association, And both sides benefit

from not ha"ing to face the uncertainty of a trial American Bar Association, It seems to me that

absolutely noneof these reasons are in the pursuit of +ustice

In order to understand this claim that reasons of the sort pro"ided by the American Bar

Association are not in the pursuit of +ustice' %e might reflect on %hat +ustice is.f course' +ustice

is notoriously difficult to define But t%o conditions seem necessary for our society to +udge an

act of punishment as +ust 4irst' %e seem to %ant to say that' for any act of punishment to be fair'

the punishment must be appropriate for the crime' neither too harsh nor too lenient 5econd' %e

seem to +udge a punishment as +ust only if the guilt of the perpetrator has been established

beyond a reasonable doubt It is beyond the scope of this essay to establish these t%o conditions

definiti"ely But they seem intuiti"ely correct' and for the purposes of this essay I shall assume

them to be true

Plea bargaining seems to undercut this on both fronts (he principle of offering the

accused a lesser charge' and hence' a lesser punishment' seems to undercut the principle that

punishment should be appropriate to the crime n the other condition' I ta&e it as self6e"ident

that in order to establish guilt' any confession obtained from the accused must be' at minimum'

free of coercion or incenti"i-ation After all' if the accused confesses due to coercion or due to

some incenti"e' it %ould seem to call the sincerity of his confession into doubt !o% could %e

e"er be sure beyond a reasonable doubt that his confession %as due to actual guilt rather than the

effects of our tampering7 It %ould seem' then' that +ustice re8uires t%o elements: 1, It re8uires

accurate charges to be brought against the accused. 2, It re8uires some method of establishing

guilt beyond any reasonable doubt In our society' this second condition is typically met by a

trial' %here the accused has a right to defend himself "igorously by challenging any e"idence

%hich the state might submit (hus' to count as +ustice it %ould seem that the accused must be

8/13/2019 Crime Final

3/8

Castaneda 3

charged appropriately and ha"e a trial !e may' of course' confess to the crime But any

confessions must be free of coercion or incenti"i-ation It is my contention that plea bargaining

fails these conditions

I ta&e it that one of the goals of any system %orthy of the name )ustice* must be to

ensure that "ictims see the full %eight of the la% brought to bear on those %ho ha"e "ictimi-ed

them If' say' a homicide occurs' it is of little consolation to the "ictim/s family to see the

perpetrator charged %ith manslaughter ne of the defendant/s ob+ecti"es' according to the

American Bar Association article cited earlier' is to a"oid harsh punishment But harsh

punishment' or more appropriately' punishment suited to the crime' is precisely one of the

conditions of +ustice 5o one of the stated incenti"es of the plea bargain process from the

perspecti"e of the defendant is ostensibly to a"oid being appropriately sentenced $hile such a

desire on the part of a perpetrator is understandable' it is li&e%ise understandable if "ictims

prefer to see those %ho "ictimi-e them ha"e their day in court By pleading guilty to a lesser

offense' perpetrators are able to deny their "ictims +ustice

It is nearly impossible to find reliable statistics on ho% many innocent people are no% in

prison Part of the reason for this is ob"ious: 4ar more people claim to be innocent than actually

are' and if there %ere some process to reliably determine that any gi"en indi"idual is innocent'

that same process could also be used to free them (hey remain behind bars only because there is

not enough certainty of their innocence to o"erturn their con"iction 4or this reason' I %ant to

suggest that any statistics on this matter are less than reliable 9onetheless' certain groups ha"e

tried to put some number on the figure (he Innocence Pro+ect' for instance' estimates the

number of innocent people in prison at bet%een 23 and ; Innocence Pro+ect, If these

numbers are accurate' then in terms of percentages the criminal +ustice system is doing a fairly

decent +ob at identifying real criminals But nonetheless' the fact remains that 2 of the total

8/13/2019 Crime Final

4/8

Castaneda