Adapting to Plea Bargaining: Prosecutors (From Criminal Justice System: Politics and Policies, Seventh Edition, P 202-222, 1998, George F. Cole and Marc G. Gertz, eds. -- See NCJ-185991)

• NCJ Number: 186000
• Author(s): Milton Heumann
• Date Published: 1998
• Length: 21 pages
• Sale Source: Wadsworth Publishing Co
• Publication Format: Book (Softbound)
• Publication Type: Collected Work
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Reprinted from Plea Bargaining by Milton Heumann with permission from The University of Chicage Press and the author.

Annotation

Plea bargaining has been openly discussed only since the late 1960's but such negotiation serves the needs of all participants in the criminal justice process and new prosecutors should be knowledgeable of plea bargaining issues and procedures.

Abstract

The views of new prosecutors about plea bargaining generally parallel those of defense attorneys. New prosecutors consider plea bargaining to be an expedient employed in crowded urban courts to reduce case volume. New prosecutors are likely to be confronted by a stream of defense attorneys asking for a particular plea bargain in a case. If the prosecutor agrees, his or her decision is irreversible. New prosecutors, however, are usually in no hurry to dispose of a case but rather are inclined toward an adversarial resolution of a case through formal hearings and trial and are not inclined to plea bargain. Central concerns of new prosecutors that shape their adaptation to plea bargaining are considered, such as the defendant's factual and legal guilt, distinguishing among guilty defendants, and case pressure and potential backlog.