Plea Bargains
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Institution

Plea Bargains
Plea bargaining can also be referred to as plea agreement, plea deal, or plea copping. It is an agreement within a criminal case where a defendant and a prosecutor arrange to settle the impending case against the defendant. Here, the defendant agrees to plead guilty where in exchange the prosecutor agrees to settle the case with regard to the agreed punishment. Within the plea bargain, the prosecutor could also agree to reduce the anticipated sentence or agrees to charge a lesser crime, which implies that some of the charges are dismissed to allow a more liniment sentence (Pradeep, n.d). Therefore, this shows that there are two forms of plea-bargaining where one is to the punishment while the other is to the charge. These two are known as charge and sentence bargaining respectively. In order to facilitate bargaining, both individuals, usually the defendant and the prosecutor, must give something up so that they can facilitate the solution of the case at hand. Generally, the purpose of plea bargains is to help in reducing the sentence for the defendant, reduce time taken while pursuing a case, and give the prosecutor time to solve other pending cases.
Plea bargaining is said to be a necessity in federal jurisdictions. This is because the cases that incorporate federal courts and jurisdictions are usually sensitive cases that require urgent resolution so that the states or the federal bodies could continue working together. In the case of federal jurisdictions, plea bargaining plays roles that incorporate enhancing relationship between the conflicting bodies or institutions to find urgent solution so that the body in conflict could continue its duties to the public and to fulfill the constitutional requirements that provide directions on what should be done when conflicts emerge.
The types of plea bargains that have been agreed upon include charge bargaining, count bargaining, sentence bargaining, as well as fact bargaining where the defendant pleads guilty to a lesser crime, to a subsection of several original charges, pleads while knowing the sentence to be offered, and pleads guilty although the sentencing will be affected by several facts respectively. The health professionals are also important in cases since they provide information that should be used by the prosecutors while passing judgments with respect to the magnitude of the crime committed (Pradeep, n.d). For instance, if an individual is mentally unstable, the prosecutor offers lenient sentence since the individual may not have been in the right state of mind when committing the crime. Since the attorney has huge responsibilities in legal matters, they play major roles in the determination of the case. The attorneys and the medical professionals should be incorporated even during a plea bargain since they are directly involved in the case. The attorney uses the medical report presented by the medical professional to base the case and determine how it will be undertaken. For instance, if the medical records show that the individual is mentally unstable, the attorney could use this information during plea-bargaining to reduce the sentence further.
The reasons against plea bargaining include the idea that it increases the workload that the judges, attorneys, defense lawyers, prosecutors are required to do, it justifies wrongful conduct, and that it could encourage wrongdoing (Sandefur, 2003). However, the supporters believe otherwise. They maintain that plea bargaining can reduce the sentence for an individual who committed a crime while having mental problems, could increase the time that the prosecutors have to attend to other cases since cases are resolved within a small period of time, and could reduce the sentence of an individual who might be wrongly convicted (Lynch, 2003). The supporters have a stronger ground than the opponents, implying that plea bargain should be supported.

References
Lynch, T. (2003). The Case against Plea Bargaining. Retrieved from
http://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/serials/files/regulation/2003/10/v26n3-7.pdf
Pradeep, K. P. (n.d). Plea Bargaining: New Horizon in Criminal Jurisprudence. Retrieved from
http://kja.gov.in/article/PLEA%20BARGAINING.pdf
Sandefur, T. (2003). In Defense of Plea Bargaining. Retrieved from
http://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/serials/files/regulation/2003/7/v26n3-8.pdf