Plea bargain
A plea bargain is an agreement in a criminal case where a prosecutor and a defendant arrange to end the case against the defendant. The defendant agrees to plead guilty or no contest (and often allocute) to the offense charged, or to a lesser offense, or to a smaller number of offenses than charged. Generally, a plea bargain alows the parties to agree on the outcome and settle the pending charge.
Plea bargaining is a significant part of the criminal justice system in the United States — the vast majority of felony criminal cases in urban areas of the United States are settled by plea bargain rather than by a jury trial. The prosecutor often agrees to accept a lighter jail sentence or fine. Plea bargains are subject to the approval of the court.
Plea bargaining is extremely difficult in jurisdictions based on civil law. This is because unlike common law systems, civil law systems have no concept of plea — if the defendant confesses, that confession is entered into evidence, but the prosecution is not absolved of the duty to present a full case. Also unlike common law systems, prosecutors in civil law countries may have limited or no power to drop or reduce charges after a case has been filed, and in some countries their power to drop or reduce charges before a case has been filed is limited, making plea bargaining impossible. Furthermore, many civil law jurists consider the concept of plea bargaining to be abhorrent, seeing it as reducing justice to barter.
The reasons for plea bargaining by either side may be several. In most cases, the plea bargain is to avoid the uncertainty of the jury trial, and minimize the risk of undesirable results for either side. Prosecutors generally have wide discretion regarding the charges they may bring, and therefore tend to charge the defendant with the most extreme charges that are applicable to the situation at hand. Thus in a plea bargain, the defendant is left to choose between the certainty of accepting sentencing for a much less serious charge, or the uncertainty of a jury trial in which the defendant might be found not guilty, but which also carries the risk of being found guilty of the original, more serious charges.
In other cases, a defendant may be culpable in one criminal matter, but have information which would help in prosecuting a broader or more significant matter. In such a case, prosecuters may agree to reduced charges or sentencing in the first matter, in exchange for the defendant's cooperation (e.g. testimony) in prosecuting the larger matter.
In still other cases, prosecutors may be certain of the guilt of the defendant in a matter, but the evidence may not be enough to convince a jury of the defendant's guilt. It is of benefit to both the prosecutor and the defendant to arrange a plea bargain — this avoids the chance that the defendant could be found not guilty (which is unfavorable to the prosecutor) or be found guilty of serious charges (which is unfavorable to the defendant).
It has been argued that the American criminal justice system would simply cease to function without plea bargaining, and that it forms a framework wherein the accused and his accusers can reach an agreement which settles the case once and for all, in what is hoped will be a spirit of fairness.
Critics of the system point out that the plea bargain system puts strong pressure on defendants to plead to crimes that they know that they did not commit, and that the outcome of a plea bargain may depend strongly on the negotiating skills and personal demeanor of the defense lawyer, which puts persons who can afford good lawyers at an advantage. Furthermore, the system encourages prosecutors to overcharge at the start of a case which leads to caseload pressures. Finally, many jurists, especially in civil law nations, find the notion of plea bargaining contrary to the purpose of the law in which a specific action should be associated with a specific penalty.
See also:
fr:plaidoyer de marchandage