A plea bargain is an agreement that has been negotiated on behalf the the defendant by his or her criminal defense attorney with the prosecution in a criminal case. The scenario for this occurs if the defendant will agree to plead guilty to a specified charge in exchange for the offer of a reduced sentence.
It’s more or less public knowledge that plea bargaining has become a common occurrence in courtrooms around the state. The reason for this is simple - there are entirely too many criminal cases to hold an actual trial for each one. For instance, one local court system has nearly 25,000 criminal cases pending - and with a figure that large it is immediately obvious that no matter what the good intentions of our legal system - there are not enough days in a year or prosecutors in a city to effectively address crime ‘the old fashioned way’ - with a judge and jury.
However, the sheer volume of alleged crimes is not the sole reason that plea bargains have become a popular alternative to prosecution. Often a criminal case may be lacking in solid evidence to the point that a prosecutor believes he or she has a better chance of finding what they consider to be some semblance of justice through a plea bargain than an outright dismissal of pending charges and/or the case.
Unfortunately, a plea bargain snatches a defendant’s right to plead a case and chance avoiding a wrongful conviction - an opportunity not afforded in a plea bargain. My suggestion is to consider all options carefully when it comes to criminal accusations.
David Breston is a Harris County criminal trial attorney. If you need a Harris county criminal trial lawyer, call David Breston at 713 224 4040.
