Plea Bargaining
Plea Bargaining: An Analysis of its Prospects in the Criminal Justice Administration of Bangladesh
Nadia Shabnam
ABSTRACT
One of the cardinal principles of criminal justice is that nobody is to be compelled by threat, promise or inducement in any criminal case to be a witness against themselves. As a result, it is an uphill task for the prosecution to unearth a crime, bring the witnesses in support of his case, rebut the defense arguments and prove the case beyond all reasonable doubts.These tasks become difficult for want of resources, manpower in the prosecution, and sluggishness of government officials, political interruption and importantly pervasive corruption in the criminal justice delivery process in Bangladesh. Against this backdrop,plea-bargaining can play an important role to address many of these issues.An attempt is made here to analyze the practices of plea bargaining in different regions and in different legal systems of the world. Based on experience of other countries, several recommendations are made for incorporating it in our criminal procedure.
KEY WORDS: Plea-bargaining,Trial,Criminal justice,Procedural drawbacks.
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INTRODUCTION
Our justice sector is divided into two parts viz.formal and informal sectors.Court system is within formal sector. Article 35(3) of the Constitution of Bangladesh laysdown,"Every person accused of criminal offence shall have the right to a speedy and public trial by an independent and impartial court or tribunal established by law”. In the context of the administration of criminal justice system, it has a dual significance as because 'justice delayed is justice denied' or 'delayed justice is an infliction of injustice in the name of justice'. In our country justice is always delayed due to procedural drawbacks. So, we cannot expect a desirable outcome from this faulty delivery system. The prime reasons for these are: lengthy investigation process, outdated recording of evidence, corruption in
Nadia Shabnam
ABSTRACT
One of the cardinal principles of criminal justice is that nobody is to be compelled by threat, promise or inducement in any criminal case to be a witness against themselves. As a result, it is an uphill task for the prosecution to unearth a crime, bring the witnesses in support of his case, rebut the defense arguments and prove the case beyond all reasonable doubts.These tasks become difficult for want of resources, manpower in the prosecution, and sluggishness of government officials, political interruption and importantly pervasive corruption in the criminal justice delivery process in Bangladesh. Against this backdrop,plea-bargaining can play an important role to address many of these issues.An attempt is made here to analyze the practices of plea bargaining in different regions and in different legal systems of the world. Based on experience of other countries, several recommendations are made for incorporating it in our criminal procedure.
KEY WORDS: Plea-bargaining,Trial,Criminal justice,Procedural drawbacks.
.
INTRODUCTION
Our justice sector is divided into two parts viz.formal and informal sectors.Court system is within formal sector. Article 35(3) of the Constitution of Bangladesh laysdown,"Every person accused of criminal offence shall have the right to a speedy and public trial by an independent and impartial court or tribunal established by law”. In the context of the administration of criminal justice system, it has a dual significance as because 'justice delayed is justice denied' or 'delayed justice is an infliction of injustice in the name of justice'. In our country justice is always delayed due to procedural drawbacks. So, we cannot expect a desirable outcome from this faulty delivery system. The prime reasons for these are: lengthy investigation process, outdated recording of evidence, corruption in