Discuss whether or not plea bargaining should be abolished - Essay Example

22 March Should plea bargaining be abolished? There is no doubt in the fact that bargaining never leads the criminal to the destination he deserves. Bargaining, as the name implies is essentially a deal. In the bargaining plea, defendants get the opportunity to work their way out of the trouble through bargaining. Although, certain penalties do sustain even in the event of plea bargaining, yet they are much gentler and softer than what a criminal would be subjected to in the trial conviction. However, this fact can not be ignored that plea bargaining is an essential component of the justice system because it allows the trial convictions, to be more thoroughly considered when the judges are not under the pressure of too many cases.

Plea bargaining reduces the number of cases that would otherwise go for trial conviction to less than half, thus improving the efficiency of the trial conviction cases. Without the facility of plea bargaining, the whole justice system is likely to collapse under the immense and unbearable work load. If the option of plea bargaining is eliminated, this would overcrowd the courts and the attention will have to be focused also on futile and pointless cases along with potentially strong and complicated cases that genuinely require trial convictions.

Every day, thousands of cases of petty crimes are taken to the court, and if each and every case was given the highest consideration, the idea of a functional justice system would become unapproachable. Therefore, it is important to have a system in place that would cater for crimes of petty nature, and plea bargaining sufficiently serves this purpose. Plea bargaining allow the defendants to enter into reasonable agreements in a very short period in comparison to the lengthy trials that are conventionally conducted in cases of severe crime cases.

In 2008, Van Brett Watkins was found guilt of having murdered Cherica Adams, who was pregnant upon the instructions of Rae Carruth who had offered him $3000 to commit the murder (“Van Brett Watkins”). Through plea bargaining, Watkins was offered a chance to make an explanation for his act. He revealed that he was psychologically tortured by Rae Carruth and was forcefully made to commit the act. He further said that he could not forgive himself for having committed the murder, and that it was a big burden over his conscience.

Having listened to his speech, Saundra Adams, Cherica’s mother forgave him and thought of him as truly remorseful for his act. Many cases get settled this way. In practical terms, plea bargaining is simply not abolishable. As many as 90 to 95 per cent of the cases that happen everyday are settled through plea bargaining. If this facility had not been there, work load for the courts would have been too massive to accommodate. This change would require the whole justice system to be restructured.

Plea bargaining is often criticized because it provides criminals with the leverage to intimidate the innocent people and get undue favors from them, but there are two sides of every picture. Unfortunately, there is not much that can be done to avoid such cases. To conclude, plea bargaining plays too important a role in the contemporary justice system to be obviated. Hence, it should not be abolished. Works Cited: “Van Brett Watkins.” 2008. Web. 22 Mar. 2011. .