DeletedUser16008
Should plea bargaining, by which people plead guilty offences in order to get lesser sentences, continue ?
Emerging in the mid-19th century as a method of speeding up court proceedings, to ‘plea bargain’ is to obtain a lesser sentence by pleading guilty to an offence less grave than the worst one with which one is charged (often, the sentence is shorter the earlier such a plea is entered). Whilst there isn’t an official plea bargaining system as such in the UK, in reality such compromises between defence and prosecution are common: and in addition to negotiation on accepting lesser offences, the "discount" for pleading guilty rather than contesting a charge at trial is ubiquitous and is openly discussed in legal textbooks. Plea bargaining is now the pre-eminent method of case disposal in the USA.
Plea bargaining is soft on crime. It means people aren’t properly punished for crimes they’ve committed. The British practice of discounting for a guilty plea is also soft on crime. A sentence should be a sentence. The fact that the guilty admit they’re guilty doesn’t change their guilt in any way. Both approaches reward the career criminal who is happy to play the system and it results in sentences that are far more lenient than the perpetrators deserve.
Emerging in the mid-19th century as a method of speeding up court proceedings, to ‘plea bargain’ is to obtain a lesser sentence by pleading guilty to an offence less grave than the worst one with which one is charged (often, the sentence is shorter the earlier such a plea is entered). Whilst there isn’t an official plea bargaining system as such in the UK, in reality such compromises between defence and prosecution are common: and in addition to negotiation on accepting lesser offences, the "discount" for pleading guilty rather than contesting a charge at trial is ubiquitous and is openly discussed in legal textbooks. Plea bargaining is now the pre-eminent method of case disposal in the USA.
Plea bargaining is soft on crime. It means people aren’t properly punished for crimes they’ve committed. The British practice of discounting for a guilty plea is also soft on crime. A sentence should be a sentence. The fact that the guilty admit they’re guilty doesn’t change their guilt in any way. Both approaches reward the career criminal who is happy to play the system and it results in sentences that are far more lenient than the perpetrators deserve.