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Why Is Plea Bargaining Unfair

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Why Is Plea Bargaining Unfair
Plea bargaining is being scrutinized and criticized for a variety of reasons. Many believe that plea bargaining is fair as it gives a possible offender the ability to negotiate a less severe sentence. If the offender is in fact innocent all he has to do is go trial and show it to the jury and he will be free to go. However many people are saying that plea bargaining has contributed to imprisoning of innocents and it is an unfair practice as a result. Though that may seem ludicrous because it would seem that innocent people would not willingly imprison themselves, data shows otherwise. These reasons are why plea bargaining has a negative impact and should be changed.
Please bargaining is the “the process whereby the accused and the prosecutor in a criminal case work out a mutually satisfactory disposition of the case subject to …show more content…
The use of plea bargaining can coerce “innocent defendants to plead guilty” (Guidorizzi, 2013, p. 197). Being arrested is a frightening experience for anyone. Innocent people may be arrested of a crime because some evidence has led to him. If a defendant gets arrested and is told he can get a harder sentence if he risks going to trial he may accept a bargain for a crime he did not commit. This comes from the fear of going to prison for even longer. Unfortunately this has happened and continues to happen. Criminologists suspect that “between 2 percent and 8 percent “of innocent individuals plead guilty. That means that at least forty-four thousand innocent individuals are behind bars and mostly through plea bargaining. An example is when Brian Banks was wrongfully convicted of rape and kidnapping “after accepting a plea bargain under the advisement of his original lawyer” (Rakoff, 2014). He served five years of that sentence. Plea bargaining has caused innocent people to go to prison. Thus showing that it has a negative impact and should be
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