Plea Bargain Research Paper

Plea Bargaining Controversy in Society
Councilman Dennis Gallagher was accused of raping and assaulting a Queens woman. The alleged event took place on July 8, 2007. Although Councilman Gallagher said it was consensual sex, the plaintiff says otherwise. When it was brought to trail by a grand-jury preceding the judge claimed the defense team had unfairly presented their case to the grand jury. About a month from the ruling, Councilman Gallagher was offered a plea deal reducing the charges brought against him as well as future happenings. The woman, the victim in the case was upset by the offering and has said that she will make sure Gallagher gets indicted.
Councilman Gallagher was accused of having raped a woman whom he had a meeting with last July. One side says the sex was consensual and the other says it wasn’t and that he raped her. When the case was dismissed by the judge because of unfair and irrelevant questions, the Councilman was offered a plea bargain. Gallagher was first offered a plea bargain that would keep him out of jail but he would have to admit being guilty of committing the above accusations. He denied that offer and was made another.
As mentioned in the textbook; “The American System of Criminal Justice”, by George F.
Cole, Plea-bargaining is negotiating a settlement between the prosecutor and the defense attorney, that would exchange a guilty plea for a lighter sentence.. Generally if the prosecutor is willing to lower the sentence, the defense will accept and plea guilty to the crime he or she was accused of. Roughly thirty-five years ago, plea-bargaining was not discussed outside of the courtroom. It was a “secret” of the court and done behind closed doors. Now, people know what plea-bargaining is, and is now a very controversial subject in society. There are positives and negative aspects of plea-bargaining in the case of Councilman
Gallagher.
The first advantage of plea-bargaining is that the process makes the amount of cases easier to deal with for the courts systems. If offering a deal to councilman Gallagher so he will plea guilty sooner rather than later speeds up the court process. The courts will be able to handle more cases in a timely manner. It helps the right to a speedy trial aspect. It saves much time of continuing a long trial, which takes a lot of time in the courts systems. It would also decrease how many people are being held in jail awaiting their trial, which would help the over crowding of jails.
The second advantage is that Councilman Gallagher, if actually guilty, will plea guilty and receive some sort of punishment for the crime committed. If he continues the trail, he might be acquitted of the charges due to laws and evidence in the trial process. Some evidence is not accepted in the trial courts, and Gallagher will not be deemed guilty and won’t receive any punishment. This would allow him to continue to be in the community and continue to harm others. This would endanger society greatly.
The third advantage of plea bargaining, which would be an advantage to the Councilman Gallagher, is that he would get a lighter punishment and in some cases get to go home, instead of continuing the trial and getting a more sever punishment, such as imprisonment. This is a great advantage to Councilman Gallagher.
There are several disadvantages of plea-bargaining as well. The first disadvantage is that if he is innocent he might plead guilty, because he would be scared of a more severe punishment. If he continues trial there might be enough evidence to have him convicted of the crime with a more severe punishment. He would just take the lighter sentence to avoid a greater sentence, even though he did not commit the crime in question.
Another disadvantage of plea-bargaining is that if Gallagher is actually guilty he would get less of a sentence than he deserves deserve. If he committed the crime he should be given a punishment that is associated with it, not a lighter sentence. If Gallagher is convicted at the end of the trial, he will receive a stronger sentence for the same crime that if he had, earlier, pled guilty with plea-bargaining. The punishments should not be less because he admitted to a crime he committed.
The third disadvantage of plea-bargaining is that if Gallagher is guilty he would get a reward for telling the truth. Because a criminal says that there a criminal, the court system gives them a lighter sentence, which is a reward for telling the truth. This is a major disadvantage of plea-bargaining.
Plea-bargaining is so controversial because people in society see it as the government playing a “game”. The courts system should find the truth and punish Councilman Gallagher, not give him a lighter sentence for telling the truth. People in society see the government negotiating punishments with criminals, and not giving specific punishments for specific crimes committed. There should be no games in the criminal justice system of the United States.
Plea-bargaining should not be in the criminal justice system. Councilman Gallagher should not be given a lighter sentence for admitting if he committed the crime. The courts system should examine all the facts and come to a decision whether he is guilty or not guilty. If he is guilty he should be punished with the sentence anyone would receive for committing the same crime. The idea of bargaining and negotiating punishments for a person accused of rape and assault is not morally correct. It goes against ones own morals.