Criminology - Thoughts On Plea Bargaining Essays - Criminal Law

Criminology - Thoughts On Plea Bargaining KWM SOCL 4461 May 07, 2001 The current tone of the criminal justice system, particularly the prosecution phase, emphasizes, clearing the docket. While this is true of both civil and criminal courts, it is very much encouraged in criminal matters where the prosecution likely has the upper hand on most, if not all, defendants. As a result, the practice of Plea Bargaining is over used and likely results in many injustices. The fact of the matter is that the state, who is for all practical purposes the prosecution, has unlimited resources and will not hesitate to use these resources to prosecute a crime, particularly a high profile crime such as murder or rape. The defendant on the other hand is more likely to be a person without means and in many instances is represented by a public defender, which is an attorney, on the states payroll, to defend those who cannot afford an attorney for themselves. Considering that the prosecution or state is also the employer of the defense attorney implies an inherent problem to begin with. Add to this the fact that public defenders most frequently are assigned to the same courts and work with the same judges and prosecutors on a daily basis, often befriending them in the process and you have the makeup for many misdeeds. It is not unheard of for prosecutors and defense attorneys, both paid and public defenders, to trade off cases, which are important to each other. In general, the way this works is the prosecutor who has a case that is for whatever reason important to him and offers to cut the defense attorney a little slack on his next important case if the defense attorney encourages his client to plead guilty on the current case. While many would suggest that this does not occur, I have personally witnessed such events and was embarrassed for our system that this is allowed to occur. Further, I was amazed that the judge was fully aware of what was occurring and supported the plea agreement. The whole process of plea agreements is, in my opinion, tainted. The mere thought that we would encourage someone to plead guilty rather than risk a trial in which he might be found guilty and piss the judge off is immoral. Is not the purpose of our criminal justice system in fact to ensure that everyone has a fair trial in front of his peers? Nowhere was it believed in the creation of our system that a judge should penalize someone for exercising his right to a public trial. However, that is exactly what occurs each and every day in the courtrooms across our country and this practice is even encouraged in many of the sentencing guidelines used in both federal and state courts today. Judges are so focused on clearing the docket that justice has become the second or third concern and the way to clear the docket is to accept pleas all day long and never have a trial. By threatening an accused person with a harsher sentence if he elects to go to trial, we have totally bypassed the fundamental rights of American citizens, which we were granted by the constitutional amendments. How can we impose a greater penalty because one chooses a trial and give someone who accepts a plea bargain a better deal, for the sake of saving time and money, when in fact the crimes may be identical or even worse the one with the better deal committed a much worse crime. Additionally, how many persons have accepted plea bargains at the suggestion of a defense attorney simply because the accused or defense did not have the financial means or resources to put on a sufficient defense. Again, these pleas are likely the result of fearing a harsher sentence if a trial was chosen. Yes, in many cases the prosecution has a strong case. However, how many times have we witnessed in the last twenty years, long-term convictions being overturned because a witness made a mistake, or a police officer was found to have planted evidence or lied at the trial. These and other injustices do occur and if a defense attorney advises a client to accept a plea agreement to avoid trial

Sample Essay Why I Want to Go to Your School

Sample Essay Why I Want to Go to Your SchoolI'm going to give you a sample essay why I want to go to your school. A lot of students, whether they are in high school or college, have all the material that they need for their project or essay already written. This is especially true of some courses that include some sort of course catalog. It can be a daunting task for some students to find out where and how to get their projects done.You should be writing your own college essays, which require more than just material that is readily available. There are several reasons why you should want to get your projects finished. If you are in college and are looking for a way to make some extra money, you may not want to take a class in which you would not be satisfied with. Do you have a passion for something or want to go back to school to study something that interests you? Whatever the reason, writing a sample essay why I want to go to your school would be the best way to put your thoughts into words.Even if you are reading through a few college projects, you will probably find that there are many instances where the writing is a bit unclear. There are some instances where students have included statements in their project that may be different from what was actually said during the discussions that were held on the topic. In order to ensure that your project will be completed properly, you should be very careful. You do not want to add something incorrect or missing in your work.An informal or formal essay may look better on the paper, but a sample is a great resource to use. While college and university requirements are different, the process of writing an essay should always include a lot of thinking. If your essay does not have a lot of information that is easily accessible, you may find it difficult to complete the project.If you want to use a sample for why I want to go to your school, you should read the entire assignment, first. This will give you a good idea of how much information you need to add to the paper. Most students that need to work with a lot of information on their paper are forced to take notes on the different parts of the assignment. With the help of a sample essay, you can avoid writing on the same subject without the additional information.Your teacher may allow you to use a sample essay or you may find one from a course catalog. This can save you a lot of time, since you will be able to move past your project and know exactly what you need to focus on. If you want to go to school, you will have to research and find the materials that you will need. You will have to do this regardless of the subject of your paper.Writing a sample for why I want to go to your school will help you understand the type of project that you will need to focus on in order to get through the assignment. Keep in mind that the students that read the material are usually not grading the projects, so it is very important that the project is made to look good and complete.