Arguments Against Plea Bargaining

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State legislators are considering a bill that bans all plea-bargaining in our state. As a leading expert on plea-bargaining, I’m aware of the instrumental role that it plays in our justice system. From the outset, I would like to state my definitive position on the matter: that plea bargaining should not be banned. My following testimony will support this position.

The Stakeholders and How a Plea-Bargaining Ban Will Affect Them

The stakeholders who benefit from plea-bargaining include judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, defendants, and the courts. Because of the proximity of these stakeholders, a ban on plea-bargaining will cause both primary and secondary effects. For example, a ban will directly affect a defendant by removing the opportunity …show more content…
This results in an increase of case backlogs, layoffs, and staffing shortages, and is pushing state courts to a tipping point of dysfunction. This dysfunction is most evident in the public defense system where 80% of criminal cases involve a poor defendant who cannot afford private representation; As the sixth amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees the right to counsel, indigent defendants receive a court-appointed defender to represent their case at the public’s expense. As the government underfunds the system, however, public defenders cannot sufficiently represent them. A recent lawsuit against the state of Missouri sheds light on this problem, claiming that “it would take another $20 million per year and more than 300 additional lawyers for the state’s public defender system to provide minimally adequate representation to indigent defendants.” While plea-bargaining helps mitigate these problems, they continue to persist.
Plea-bargaining plays a pertinent role in the justice system because it’s cost effective and time efficient. The majority of the thirty-one million cases that flood the justice system each year never reach the courts because over 90% of criminal cases result in plea-bargain deals (cite). Despite this substantial reduction,
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