Plea bargain

A plea bargain is an agreement in a criminal case in which a prosecutor and a defendant arrange to settle the case against the defendant. The defendant agrees to plead guilty or no contest (and often allocute) in exchange for some concession from the prosecutor. This concession can include reducing the original charge or charges, dismissing some of the charges against the defendant or limiting the punishment a court can impose on the defendant. Generally, a plea bargain allows the parties to agree on the outcome and settle the pending charge. In colloquial terms this is known as "copping a plea".

Plea bargaining in civil law countries

Plea bargaining is extremely difficult in jurisdictions based on civil law. This is because unlike common law systems, civil law systems have no concept of plea—if the defendant confesses, that confession is entered into evidence, but the prosecution is not absolved of the duty to present a full case. A court may decide that a defendant is innocent even though he presented a full confession. Also unlike common law systems, prosecutors in civil law countries may have limited or no power to drop or reduce charges after a case has been filed, and in some countries their power to drop or reduce charges before a case has been filed is limited, making plea bargaining impossible. Furthermore, many civil law jurists consider the concept of plea bargaining to be abhorrent, seeing it as reducing justice to barter.

Related Topics:
Civil law - Common law - Barter

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The introduction of a limited form of plea bargaining (plaider coupable) was highly controversial in France. In this system, the public prosecutor could propose to suspects of relatively minor crimes a penalty not exceeding one year in prison; the deal, if accepted, had to be accepted by a judge. Opponents, most specifically attorneys and left-wing parties, argued that plea bargaining would gravely infringe on the rights of defense, the long-standing constitutional right of presumption of innocence, the rights of suspects in police custody, and the right to a fair trial. http://www.mjsfrance.org/tdc/article.php3?id_article=224http://www.lexpress.fr/info/france/dossier/justice/dossier.asp?ida=426455http://perso.wanadoo.fr/felina/doc/just/perben2.htm

Related Topics:
France - Attorney - Left-wing - Presumption of innocence - Right to a fair trial

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For instance, Robert Badinter argued that plea bargaining would give too much power to the public prosecutor, and would incite defendants to accept a sentence only not to risk a bigger sentence in a trial, even if they did not really deserve it.

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