plea bargains
Reduced charge agreements
Plea bargains are negotiated agreements in criminal cases where defendants plead guilty to lesser charges in exchange for reduced sentences or dropped charges.
The practice resolves most criminal cases without trial: The prosecutor offered a plea bargain to avoid a lengthy court battle.
Critics argue plea bargains pressure innocent defendants to accept guilt; supporters say they reduce court backlogs and give defendants certainty.
- cut a dealReach a mutual agreement
- judgesLegal proceeding overseers
- court dateScheduled judicial appearance
- agreementShared position between parties
- behind closed doorsIn private, unobserved
conviction · deal · lawyers · no contest · defendant · cooperating witness · sentences · settlement · prosecutor · coercion · public defenders · alternative sentencing · time served · jail time · guilty · felony · trial · justice
- judicial reformjudicial reform, court reform, justice reform, legal reform, judicial independence
- criminal justicearrest, jail, court, prison, crime
- criminal lawcrime, felony, misdemeanor, murder, robbery
- criminal courtstrials, courtroom, verdicts, defendants, accused
- law and societysocial control, legal institutions, legal systems, social order, rule of law
- legal fictionlegal drama, courtroom drama, crime fiction, detective stories, To Kill a Mockingbird
plea bargainsjury trials
Legal hearings with citizen panels
jury verdicts · bench trials · trial by jury · litigation · trials
bargain, plead, plea, negotiation, bargaining, pleading, negotiations, bargains, pleaded