Coerced Plea Bargian - Research Paper Example

?Coerced Plea Bargain Thesis ment All people; even the guilty have rights and under no circumstance should their rights be taken away from in the name of coerced plea bargain. Introduction Perhaps one of the most useful components of the law is the protection of the fundamental human rights of all people. The protection of the fundamental human right is regarded very useful because it non-discriminatory and puts all people equal before the law. It is like saying that if the president of the nation deserves to live, the laborer at the presidential palace also deserves the same amount of right to live. Born out of the protection of the fundamental human rights of all people is the plea bargain that is basically concerned with giving a guilty person some room to plead for mercy. But in what ways have this right being abused? The essence of this essay is review coerced plea bargain and take a stand on it. What is Plea Bargain? According to the Encyclopedia of Everyday Law (2009), plea bargain “usually involves the defendant's pleading guilty to a lesser offense or to only one or some of the counts of a multi-count indictment in return for a lighter sentence than that possible for the graver charge”. Alschuler gives a similar definition or the term as he states that plea bargain is a situation where by “prosecutors and trail judges offer defendants concessions in exchange for their plea.” The basic idea therefore lies in the fact that in plea bargains, defendants admit their charges without or with very minimal pressure from the jury and in exchange of their ‘frankness’, receive lesser or lighter sentences. Validity of Plea Bargain Several practitioners of law actually act as critics of plea bargain, arguing that the practice defeats the basic right of the defendant to go through the due processes of the law to perhaps come out victorious without any sentence. To these people, plea bargain infringes rather than promote the fundamental human rights of people (Guidorizzi, 1998). This argument not withstanding, there are legal validities of the whole concept of plea bargain. The Encyclopedia of Everyday Law (2009) explains that “the validity of a plea bargain is dependent upon three essential components: a knowing WAIVER of rights; a voluntary waiver; and a factual basis to support the charges to which the defendant is pleading guilty.” If plea bargains occur under these components, we say the plea bargain is valid. Forms of Negotiating Plea Bargain For a plea bargain to be possible, there are certain legal negotiations that must go on. Koduah (2001) mentions some of these negotiations as Charge Bargaining, Sentence Bargaining and Fact Bargaining. Explaining further, the Encyclopedia of Everyday Law (2009) states that in charge bargaining, “in return for a plea of "guilty" to a lesser charge, a prosecutor will dismiss the higher or other charge(s) or counts.” This means that the defendant gets a ‘reward’ of a squashed higher charge because of admitting guilt for a smaller offense. Further on, the encyclopedia writes that with sentence bargaining, there is an “agreement to a plea of guilty (for the stated charge rather than a reduced charge) in return for a lighter sentence.” In this case therefore, trial goes on for the prosecution whiles the defendant hopes for a lighter sentence. Finally, fact bargaining “involves an admission to certain facts "stipulating" to the truth and existence of provable facts, thereby eliminating the need for the prosecutor to have to prove them. As in the case of all plea bargain, the defendant is given something in return, which is that there is “an agreement not to introduce certain other facts into EVIDENCE” (Encyclopedia of Everyday Law, 2009). Under what condition does a Plea Bargain become Coerced? Risinger (2007) explains that under any circumstance where plea bargain is forced on a defendant constitutes coerced plea bargain. In some cases also, attorneys of defendants do not force their defendants into negotiating for plea bargain but take plea bargains for them without their consent. In such circumstance also, coerced bargain is said to have taken place. Coerced bargain can also be explained, using all the discussion we have had earlier. For instance having discussed the circumstance under which plea bargain is regarded as valid, any action undertaken in the course of seeking plea bargain for a defendant that does not fall under the description of valid plea bargain is coerced (McLean, 2009). Again, having discussed forms of negotiating plea bargain, any form of plea bargain that falls outside the three negotiable principles constitute a coerced plea bargain A typical Case of Coerced Plea Bargain reported by Innocents Convicted “In 1988, a woman was raped and murdered at an Austin, Texas Pizza Hut restaurant where she worked. Based on a hunch that the crime was committed by a Pizza Hut employee with a master key, police began questioning employees of the chain restaurant. Chris Ochoa and his roommate, Richard Danziger, worked at a different Austin area Pizza Hut, but became the main suspects when they were observed drinking beer and appearing to toast the victim. Mr. Ochoa and Mr. Danziger were subsequently convicted of the crime. Both convictions grew out of a false confession by Mr. Ochoa. It was later discovered that his confession was coerced and that interrogators had threatened him with the death penalty. Years after their convictions, letters detailing the crime were sent to the police, to then-Governor George W. Bush’s office, and the District Attorney’s Office. The author of the letters, Achim Marino, had apparently undergone a religious conversion while in prison on three other convictions, and felt obligated to confess to the Pizza Hut rape/murder. The DNA evidence from the original crime scene was retested. It exculpated both Mr. Ochoa and Mr. Danziger, while implicating Mr. Marino. Had Mr. Ochoa’s initial “confession” been taped, jurors, at the subsequent trial, would have had an opportunity to assess the circumstances under which his confession was made.” Source (Economic Reviewer, 2010). The report given above represents a typical instance whereby coerced plea bargain was applied on a person for the wrong course. The story does not always end in this manner. There are also instances where coerced bargain were actually beneficial to the defendants. This story was however chosen in relation to the thesis statement and the stand taken by the writer on the issue of coerced plea bargain. Pros and Cons of Coerced Plea Bargain As a legal phenomenon, plea bargain has its own pros and cons. This is to say that there are both advantages and disadvantages regarding to the implementation of plea bargain. Writing on the pros of coerced plea bargain, the Encyclopedia of Everyday Law (2009) explains that coerced plea bargain creates a lot of space in the courtroom and relieves judges and “alleviate the need to schedule and hold a trial on an already overcrowded DOCKET.” Again, coerced plea bargain really offers genuine offenders the opportunity to have reduced sentences. But for the presence of plea bargain, there are a lot of people who would have been spending more number of years in our already choked prison than they are spending now. Coercing these people to take up plea bargain therefore comes as reliefs for them. On the cons, the Innocence Project (1998) has it that, “About 25 percent of the over 240 wrongful convictions overturned by DNA evidence in the U.S. have involved some form of a false confession.” This means that under most circumstances, people who are coerced to take up plea bargain turn out to be people who were really innocent and could have gone through the due processes of the law to come out victorious. Writer’s Stand on Coerced Plea Bargain Taking a stand on coerced plea bargain is one of the most difficult legal decisions any one can take. As a matter of fact, it is rather right to state that for whatever stand one takes, the other stand does not represent a total nullification or invalidity (Peprah, 2008). This is because coerced plea bargain has both pros and cons. Having said this, I would like to state that coerced plea bargain is not right. This is because the need for fair trail and due process my always be allowed to rule. If due process is really given a chance, people will at no instance be sentenced wrongly – whether the sentences are one second or ten years in prison. Again, for the sake of enforcing the law, idea that people deserve mercy before the law and thus plea bargain should give people that chance should be nullified. In fact, law breakers have no mercy on the law and thus the law should have no person on its breakers. Conclusion It is important that the debate continues among legal brains. In fact the debate must be directed at either repelling coerced plea bargain or allowing it to continue. In the debate, the need to give the law its maximum respect must be considered. In the same regard however, the freedom and right of the individual must also be catered for (United States Attorneys Manual, 2007). REFERENCE LIST Alschuler, A. W. (1979). Plea Bargaining and its History. Columbia Law Review. Vol 79, no. 1. Available from http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?collection=journals&handle=hein.journals/clr79&div=11&id=&page= Economic Reviewer (2010). Plea Bargaining: Coercing the Innocent and Rewarding the Guilty. Retrieved August 9, 2011 from http://economicreviewer.com/discussion/2010/11/11/plea-bargaining-coercing-the-innocent-and-rewarding-the-guilty/ Encyclopedia of Everyday Law (2009). Plea Bargain, eNotes, retrieved August 8, 2011 from http://www.enotes.com/everyday-law-encyclopedia/plea-bargaining Guidorizzi D.D (1998). The Core Concerns of Plea Bargaining Critics. Available at http://www.law.emory.edu/ELJ/volumes/spg98/guido.html. Innocence Project (1998). False Confessions and Recording of Custodial Interrogations. Retrieved August 6, 2011 from http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/False_Confessions__Recording_Of_Custodial_Interrogations.php Koduah I (2001). The Basis of Plea Bargaining. PrintMark Group Publications: Durban McLean J.G., (2009). The Legalities of Plea Bargain. Contemporary Publishers Limited: Toronto Peprah D.H (2008). The Legal Debate on Coerced Plea Bargain Continues. Harlow Publication: New York Risinger, M. D. (2007). Innocents Convicted: An Empirically Justified Wrongful Conviction Rate. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology. Vol. 97 no. 3. United States Attorneys Manual. (USAM) (2007). Office of the U. S. Attorney General, Dept. of Justice. Available at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/eousa/foia_reading_room/usam/titl... Read More