CRI345 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Plea Bargain, Jury Trial, Formal System
10 Aug 2022
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Prosecution offer accused a lesser sentence/lower charge in exchange for guilty plea/not going to trial. Changes to criminal trial procedure = efficiency challenges. Gap btw the imagined ideal of criminal procedure, and the reality. Ideal epitomized by conflict in public btw prosecution & defense accused offered full & fair trial, investigation & adversarial procedure as main issue to be analyzed. Reality plea bargaining is the norm. Adversarial fact based investigative confrontation to managerial focus assessment. Job of state through prosecutor to make risk based. Reality of events alleged in charge much less important compared to perceived dangerousness of accused. R v anthony-cook (2016) plea agreements = vitally important to the well being of our criminal justice system , w/out which the justice system would eventually collapse under its own weight . No reliable statistics available for most common law jurisdictions, including canada. Evidence suggests over 60% of canadian cases result in guilty pleas, but plea negotiations are not recorded separately.
