For the majority of defendants, then, the plea bargaining process is the justice system.
FORBES: Aaron Swartz and the Corrupt Practice of Plea Bargaining
Some lawyers worry that, in their current pursuit of corporate big fish, prosecutors might be tempted to abuse the plea-bargaining process to secure damaging false testimony from smaller fry.
And thanks to the legal fiction that plea bargaining is a voluntary negotiation between the prosecutor and defendant, our justice system effectively gives people dramatically longer sentences for exercising the right to have a trial at all.
FORBES: Aaron Swartz and the Corrupt Practice of Plea Bargaining
NGO, the government missed an opportunity to use plea-bargaining to reveal the truth.
Plea bargaining is woven into the fabric of our criminal justice system.
FORBES: Aaron Swartz' Suicide Forces Hard Questions About The Criminal Justice System
Plea bargaining is common in the US, with defendants often able to secure a more lenient sentence if they admit an offence and co-operate with prosecutors, rather than contest the charges in a trial.
Silent treatment A year ago we argued that the U.S. federal government had overreacted when it sentenced the computer hacker Kevin Mitnick, 36, to five years in jail--more time than most plea-bargaining killers serve (" Kevin Mitnick, the hackers' first martyr").
This followed a complex legal process that included the Supreme Court, lower courts and plea-bargaining.
MSPs will also look at staffing levels, fiscal fines and plea bargaining - as well as relations between the Crown Office, the Scottish Executive and the police.
The new length of corporate-fraud sentences may also be influencing in troubling ways one of the most controversial elements of America's justice system: plea bargaining.
The government has virtually unlimited resources, immense experience in playing to an attentive (and often subservient) media, the ability to intimidate witnesses into testifying, and a habit of plea-bargaining its way to victory.
FORBES: Leveling the playing field: Immunized Witnesses for the Defense
While in jail awaiting trial, he has reportedly engaged in plea-bargaining by confessing to participating in a Libyan plot to murder the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia.
The new government also wants approval of a law to protect witnesses and to encourage plea-bargaining.
Underlying the revolving door is a pernicious underbelly of overzealous and often unfair prosecutions, juked conviction stats, and a culture of plea-bargaining that is spiraling out of control, all in order to bring down some of the biggies in the business world.
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