Plea Bargaining - Getting Your Criminal Charges Reduced

Introduction

In a criminal proceeding, plea bargaining is the process wherein an agreement is formed between the prosecution and the defense regarding the charges that are brought against the accused. Usually, the prosecution will offer to drop or reduce some of the charges in exchange for a guilty plea or a no contest plea from the defendant.

Agreements reached during plea bargaining are subject to the approval of the court, and there are various laws governing the regulation of it. These laws often vary from state to state in terms of how and when they can be resorted to. In federal cases, the Federal Sentencing Guidelines regulate the process.

Plea Bargaining - Getting Your Criminal Charges Reduced

When Plea Bargaining May Be Entered Into

Plea bargaining can be entered any time from the moment of arrest up until an official verdict is read. However, it is usually more advantageous for the defendant to seek plea bargaining before they have been charged with the offense(s). This is because the person sometimes may not be able to have charges dropped or reduced after the charges have been formally filed.

Also, it is better to seek plea bargaining at the beginning of trial, so that the accused does not have to waste valuable time and resources sitting through the entire length of the trial. Thus, for the criminally accused, it is best to retain an attorney without delay so that they have the option of plea bargaining as early as possible in the proceedings.

Types

There are basically three different types of plea bargaining. The first two are the most commonly employed:

Charge bargaining: the defendant pleads guilty to a less serious charge than the one initially imposed. For example, a prosecutor may offer to have the charges reduced from felony theft charge to misdemeanor theft. This would effectively eliminate a prison sentence. Count bargaining: the defendant pleads guilty to a fewer number of criminal charges. This usually happens when one criminal act leads to an accumulation of charges. Reducing the number of charges might also reduce or avoid prison time. Sentence bargaining: the defendant pleads guilty knowing beforehand what the sentencing period will be. A sentence such as prison time or fines will then be reduced accordingly. This is not that common as a defendant may not always know their sentence beforehand.

Therefore, depending on the defendant's charges, any one of these plea bargaining methods may be employed, or a mixture of the different types. Of the three, count bargaining tends to reduce the time of trial proceedings- if an entire count is dropped, then the court does not have to proceed in analyzing that charge. Count bargaining can dramatically reduce court time.

In all three types of plea bargaining, the main goal is to usually avoid prison time altogether; if this can be accomplished in it, this is much better for the defendant.

Broken deals: What if the prosecution or the defendant breaks the plea bargain agreement?

The court views plea bargaining as having a contractual nature. This means that the court requires both parties to comply with their side of the bargain. Also, the court assumes that both parties will be completely informed as to the consequences of entering into the agreement.

If the defendant breaks the agreement: Usually the defendant must fulfill certain tasks in order to have charges dropped or reduced. These can include pleading guilty, testifying against another defendant, or cooperating in various investigations. If the defendant accepts a plea bargain but does not complete their tasks, the prosecution is allowed to revoke the plea bargain and reinstate the original charges.

If the prosecution breaks the agreement: The prosecutor also has the responsibility to perform their part of the plea bargain. For example, if the prosecutor files the charges after agreeing to reduce some of them, the defendant has a number of options. The defendant may then seek a court order compelling the prosecution to respect the plea bargain. Alternatively, they may request to have the plea set aside.

Advantages

The most obvious advantage of plea bargaining is having charges reduced or dropped. This would allow the defendant to have a cleaner criminal record than if the charges were instated. Other benefits of plea bargaining are:

Less money spent on trial and attorney's fees Avoiding the hassle of trial altogether Avoiding a stigmatizing criminal charge on one's record Avoiding unnecessary publicity Helps keep the courts unburdened with too many cases

Criticisms of the Plea Bargaining System

The plea bargaining system has received numerous criticisms over the years, particularly in American jurisprudence. The most major criticism is that it is unconstitutional because it supposedly denies the accused their right to a trial by jury. This is understandable, because sometimes a defendant may immediately plead guilty to a crime just to avoid trial. They might not ever know if they would be found guilty or not had the court proceeded with the trial.

However, as stated before, it is contractual in nature, and defendants don't have to enter into plea bargaining without the counsel of a lawyer. They will always be well informed of the consequences of any decisions made and so it is up to the defendant if they wish to forgo trial.

Thus, plea bargaining does involve some amount of risk on the part of the defendant, who may not always know exactly how a jury would rule. Some law firms actually employ a risk-assessment analysis in dealing with it. They weigh the amount of time and money that would be probably be spent in trial and compare it with the amount expended as a result of bargaining.

Other criticisms are due to images of plea bargaining portrayed in the media. Many associate it with intense threats or coercion aimed at the defendant in order to make them plead guilty. Or, some feel that it allows people who should be punished to get off with less prison time. In most cases, depictions of plea bargaining in movies or on television are over-dramatized. Many depictions of plea bargaining are not accurate and would violate a defendant's rights if they were to happen in an actual criminal proceeding.

Finally, much literature has been written on what is termed the "prisoner's dilemma". The prisoner's dilemma occurs when two suspects are called upon to testify against each other in court, irrespective of the other's guilt or innocence. Because the prisoner's dilemma can raise difficulty in testimonies, some countries actually do not allow plea bargaining when the prisoner's dilemma arises. American courts attempt to remedy the dilemma through constitutional rights such as the right of confrontation. The right to confrontation provides for defendants to testify in their own capacity, while omitting portions that might incriminate a co-defendant.

Conclusion

The vast majority of criminal cases in the United States are determined by plea bargaining rather than jury trials. If there were no plea bargaining system and all the cases on the docket were tried it is certain that courts would be overworked and backlogged.

Plea bargaining is often a good option. However, some attorneys would suggest that the defendant take the case to trial if they feel that the outcome is close or there is too much risk. Plea bargaining is best considered as a tool of the judiciary system that allows defendants to bypass much of the court process. This means the decision to plea bargain is in the hands of the defendant, and they should not feel that they are being coerced at any point in the proceedings.

Plea Bargaining - Getting Your Criminal Charges Reduced
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Ken LaMance is the Corporate Counsel at LegalMatch ( http://www.legalmatch.com ), an online client-lawyer matching company based out of San Francisco, California. LegalMatch is fast, free, and confidential. LegalMatch is America's original attorney/client matching service and is not a referral service. When a consumer presents their issue to LegalMatch, our system matches the consumer's case to LegalMatch lawyers in their city or county based on the specifics of the consumer's case, lawyer's location, and area of legal practice. LegalMatch also offers a number of useful resources like an online law library, tips, law blog, and legal forums on nearly every topic ( http://forums.legalmatch.com ).

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The Basics of Public Intoxication

If you have just went out with your friends and gotten drunk in public, this is technically classified as public intoxication which is a serious offense in the state of Texas. There are many types of behavior that can be considered public intoxication and you need to make sure that you are aware of all the consequences that will go along with this type of behavior.

The first thing that you should understand is that public intoxication is considered when a person is acting disorderly in a public place because of alcohol or illegal drug substance. This means that the person ingested or used some type of alcohol or drug and was therefore acting in a way that was causing them to make a nuisance of themselves. Although some people say that getting a PI is only for those who were drunk in public, but they are incorrect. When you are drunk in public, a police officer can see this behavior and will most likely give you a ticket and arrest you. The reason that they will arrest you is because they consider you to be a danger to both yourself and others. The police want to make sure that you don't cause harm to anyone including yourself.

The next factor that you should understand is that when they arrest you, you are not going to be able to leave the jail immediately after. The police are quite likely to hold you in the jail for up to 6 hours in order to make sure that you sober up enough to get yourself back to your home in safe manor without hurting any other bystanders. If you are over the age of 21 the penalties are not as severe as if you are a minor and arrested for Public Intoxication.

The Basics of Public Intoxication

Being arrested for Public Intoxication is considered a Class C Misdemeanor. Depending on what your past criminal record looks like will determine what your sentence will be on your PI. The process for a PI is that you first are arrested. During your time spent in jail, they will also write you a ticket that you will be assigned to take care of as well as a court date that you will need to attend. If you fail to appear at the assigned court date, the police will automatically put out warrant for your arrest for your lack of appearance in the court room. During your court hearing you will be given a sentence by the judge depending on how lenient the judge is toward your case. The sentence can be anywhere up to 0 in a fine that you will be required to pay the court. They will also probably give you some type of alcohol awareness classes that you will be required to take.

The Basics of Public Intoxication
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For more information, contact the Denton Criminal Defense Lawyers of Alexander and Associates at http://www.criminallawyerdenton.com.

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Free Police Arrest Records Online

According to Crime in the United States by the Department of Justice, the Rate of Arrests in 2006 nationwide was almost 5% and that's not even taking into account arrests resulting from traffic violations. That's an increase across the board for all major categories of violation such as violent, property and drugs, from the year before and bodes very poorly for 2007, the current year and beyond.

An arrest can be viewed as the immediate containment of an unlawful act with its judicial disposition usually coming later. In parallel, it serves to maintain custody on the arrestee so that he or she can be produced for further proceedings. It is officially carried out by an agency of authority which is most commonly the Police. The main role of the Police in governance is law enforcement although they are typically tasked with other functions as well.

Once an Arrest has been made by the Police, a report will be put up, usually by the arresting officer for record purposes and as document for the assigned Intake Prosecutor or submitted as evidence to the Grand Jury, to determine the charges to be filed. The entry to the arrestee's Police Arrest Records will be permanent, regardless of whether or not the arrest leads to any incarceration.

Free Police Arrest Records Online

We can learn a great deal about people from their Police Arrest Records. That's why it is one of the most widely searched categories of Public Records pertaining to Criminal Violation. At a basic level, they contain the personal details of the arrestee and the surrounding information of the arrests. If there had been multiple arrests on the subject, they will all show up as long as they are within the same state.

Although there may be restrictions on the accessibility and use of Police Arrest Records under exceptional circumstances, they are Public Records nevertheless. As such, they are mandated by law to be made available to anyone who may wish to retrieve them and can be requested directly from the local Police Department where the subject resides or at any of the public offices assigned with the function.

Police Arrest Records are state-level records. That means that they are governed by individual state laws in terms of accessibility, restriction, use and treatment. The respective databases over the various states are also not known to be linked. Because of that, a state by state search is necessary when an absolute nationwide account of Police Arrest Records is desired in the absence of the subject's residential history or whereabouts information.

Another way of retrieving Police Arrest Records is through commercial record providers. They are found in abundance on the internet. Although their version is fee-based, it is being increasingly preferred to the Free Arrest Records from government offices. Beside sparing you the fuss and hassle, waiting time and insulating you of legality issues, they also have the means to tap into private and proprietary networks along with public sources.

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Free Public Police Records?

It's official now. The US has the highest per capita incarceration rate in the world according to a very recent report from the Department of Justice. More than 2 million people were in jail at year-end 2006, an all-time high, not including those who are on probation, parole, rehabilitation or have already served out their sentence. And that's looking at hard crimes alone. What about other run-ins with the law where offenders are not put behind bars?

When it comes to completeness in checking violation of law or regulation, an excellent resource is found in Public Police Records. It is different from Criminal Records in that it is not just about crime and conviction. Anytime you have any interaction or engagement with the police, it will likely go into your police records. Although public police records are tasked differently from state to state, it generally means all reports recorded by police, including complaints and requests submitted by the public. This inherently implies that anything that is not in norm or order is deemed to be under police charter. Some prominent enforcement-related features in police records are arrest, driving violations, violence, sex offenses, gangs, drugs fraud and public disturbance. Other informative type data are also listed for example firearms permit, traffic accidents, address history, family members, lost and found, missing person, property and so forth.

Police record checks are conducted chiefly in employment screening and volunteering assessment. However, the laws governing the use of the information derived from such checks are strict and serious. Lawyers and experts are often required to determine the permissible and proper application of the police record search results in such contexts. For one thing, consent from the subject must be secured in order to initiate a search. While there is Freedom to Information Act, there are also privacy rights and discrimination protection provisions.

Free Public Police Records?

A police record report can also be used as a 'good conduct' or 'no criminal record' certification. Such a clearance document may be required abroad for further studies, child adoption, employment, residency or even sports and arts events. Local police departments are tasked with the procedure of running a crime record background check and issue the report in accordance with it. They have authority and liberty to construct the document to reflect the subject in a manner they deem fit and appropriate. After all, a favorable police record report is not worth the paper it's printed on without its official authentication.

Police records are available free of charge but they are generally scattered all over different states, if not counties. It can be quite onerous and time-consuming to assemble the findings too. That perhaps is why paid service for this purpose is generally opted. Charges are typically nominal and great value can be found if you know where to look.

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Law Enforcement Articles - The Need for Interview and Interrogation Training

At no time in our modern history have more demands been placed upon the law enforcement officer. Communities are extremely concerned about crime and they are demanding that law enforcement agencies "do something about it."
It seems that every day, violent crime and drugs occupy the front page of every newspaper in America. Politicians at the local, state and national level like to give the impression of being "tough on crime" and espouse philosophies which, at least outwardly, seem to support that toughness.

At the same time, the public (via the media) is scrutinizing the actions of the law enforcement community more closely than ever before.

The public wants results and, more importantly, to feel safe. Yet, that same public will not tolerate any perceived abuses of suspects' rights in the process.

Law Enforcement Articles - The Need for Interview and Interrogation Training

Primarily due to the increased cost of incarceration, a concerted push is being made to release prisoners from jails and prisons, with the ensuing increase in probationers and parolees.

Probation/Parole Officers have increased caseloads with no end in sight.

Juvenile crime is sky-rocketing.

Younger, more fearless criminals are becoming the norm, with the media bringing sad tale after tale into our homes on a nightly basis.

When I speak to new recruits, I tell them that what the public wants in a police officer is simple: we want applicants that are warm, caring individuals who are capable of speaking to public groups; conducting demonstrations at schools; counseling troubled youth; rendering first aid; interacting with and assessing problems from a community perspective.

In addition to all of those admirable qualities, we want much more.

If a bad guy is trying to get into our home, we want an absolutely fearless gladiator who will willingly risk his/her very life to apprehend the suspect (without injury to the burglar, of course) and protect our property.

We want, expect and demand all of this for a salary that is far less than society pays a plumber!

Whether a person is a Probation/Parole Officer supervising 100 felons, a Police Officer in a patrol car, a Fish and Wildlife Officer working all alone 50 miles from any back-up, a military law enforcement officer or a Federal Agent working in a structured environment, being a law enforcement officer is an extraordinarily tough and complex job which demands that we apply all of our skills and training.

How has the law enforcement community dealt with the ever-increasingly need for interview training?

Poorly, I'm afraid. Here's how it works...

In virtually every modern law enforcement agency, much care and consideration is given to the allocation of training, especially that training which requires both expenditures of time and money.

Traditionally, different segments of the agency (patrol, detectives, administration, etc.) have had to compete in a sense for their share of the almighty training dollar budget.

As a result, it is incumbent upon agency administrators to prioritize the available training money.

Training in most modern law enforcement agencies has taken on the semblance of a triage system at an emergency room. Administrators want to send everyone to training, so they end up throwing some money at those who are "bleeding" the most. Due to civil liability concerns, patrol officers mainly receive training emphasizing the motor skills areas (firearms, arrest techniques, emergency driving tactics, handgun retention skills, etc.), said areas presenting the most opportunity for misapplication and a resultant lawsuit.

Investigators receive training geared toward their primary areas of emphasis (interview & interrogation, crime scene investigation, investigative specialties, etc.).

Ironically, an objective analysis of the component parts of the job of patrol officer reveals interviewing skills are utilized far more often than any other skill. Think about it, what skill is used more often than the ability to talk with people and elicit information?

Conversely, what will get an officer in trouble with the public faster than an inability to communicate?

How many times in any officer's life will he or she use deadly force?How many times in any given month will he or she get into a vehicular pursuit? How many instances of dealing with hazardous materials will crop up in an average month? Contrast the frequency of these incidents against the absolute certainty that we will have to interact with people during each and every shift.

We routinely qualify in shooting, attend yearly hazardous materials safety courses, attend Emergency Vehicle Operations courses and the like, yet most patrol officers never attend formal interview and interrogation instruction after an initial exposure to it in the basic training academy.

Consider the following sober statistics:

o Police Training academies in the United States offer, on average, only 4 hours of training on interviewing techniques during Basic Training.

o 60% of law enforcement training academies in the U.S. don't offer any interview training at all during Basic Training.

o Less than 20% of all law enforcement officers have received in-service training in interviewing techniques.

Unfortunately, in most law enforcement agencies, the investigators are repeatedly sent to interview and interrogation training, while the patrol officers who apply to attend are routinely turned down. In the bureaucratic effort to make training dollars stretch a long way, administrators often prioritize training requests, sometimes based upon outdated or inaccurate information.

The need exists for inexpensive, easy methods benefit police officers without regard to job assignment, all in an affordable manner.

Compounding the training problem is the current countrywide push toward "Community Policing" and all of the responsibilities inherent with that system. Simply put, Community Policing can be best described as a philosophy of empowerment that allows the beat officer to solve problems. By a collaborative effort with others in the community, police officers are responsible for actually resolving the community concerns, rather than just taking enforcement action.

While the philosophy sounds good, the average law enforcement patrol officer has not been given the tools with which to conduct investigations, interview people, make public presentations and achieve this collaboration to solve problems. Federal grant money has been spread across the country in an effort to promote Community Policing.

Officers have been hired, equipment has been purchased and public relations efforts have been extensive in this area. Unfortunately, officers that do not have the foundation of investigative training may find themselves in an uncomfortable position.

One Community Policing officer recently told me "If I had wanted to interview neighbors, show photo lineups, speak to public groups and work extensively with other public agencies, I would have been a detective. What happened to good, old-fashioned police work?"

One of the primary components of Community Policing is the ability to interact with people in a non-threatening manner which elicits maximum information.

Most basic training academies teach a block of instruction on "Interviewing and Interrogation." However, these traditional systems stress the structured interview approach to interviewing. The new trainee soon realizes that he or she will conduct hundreds or thousands of street interviews while on patrol and will perform relatively few formal, structured interviews in an interrogation room setting.

There are some very fine formal "Interview and Interrogation" type training classes for law enforcement officers out there (being a polygraph examiner, I have attended quite a few of them), but they tend to emphasize the structured interrogation aspect of the situation and are geared more toward an investigator than a patrol officer.

Look for interview training that does not deal with just the structured interview/interrogation type setting. Again, an analysis of a patrol officer's daily job reveals that the vast majority of contacts that he or she experiences are not in a structured setting conducive to a formalized method of interview and interrogation.

The Focused Interviewing system is not one based totally on theory, but rather upon practical application. These techniques are being successfully used daily, are very easy to learn and do not require reference texts to be carried in the field.

In this system, we will look at what is wrong (or at least ineffective) with typical street interview techniques, what led us to use techniques that don't work, what does work and how to develop techniques that will dramatically increase our "confession" or "incriminating statement" rates in dealing with offenders and will be of great value in clarifying statements obtained from victims and witnesses.

This is the first in a long series of Law Enforcement articles concerning first-responder interviewing and interrogation.

Stay tuned!

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Criminal and Records Totally Free - 2 Shocking Sources For Criminal and Arrest Records Totally Free

There are a number of reasons why people search for criminal and arrest records. While everyone knows that a small fee of a few dollars will get the info they want quickly however there are a few sources you should try first to see if you can get your info totally free.

Free Criminal And Arrest Records Source #1

Unless you've been living in a cave for the past few years you already know about the power of Google. The fact is that practically anything under the sun can be searched out by simply typing a question into Google. The same goes for criminal and arrest records. Simply enter whatever information you have on the person you are investigating into your favorite search engine. Items such as the persons full name, their address or any other accurate information you may have on them.

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The real downside to this source is that there will be a huge number of results that the search engine returns. This means that you will have to take the time to check and cross reference each lead to make sure you don't miss anything. Se be sure to take your time with sifting through the results.

Free Criminal And Arrest Records Source #2

A legal right that you can use to your advantage is your right to access public records. Criminal and arrest records as well as court documents are to be kept open for public research - they are called public records. With the law on your side you have the right to walk into your local courthouse and apply for access to these documents. The process is a bit long, but essentially you will need to fill out an application for information and then wait to find out if your application is approved.

If you are approved you will be ushered into a large room or rooms full of boxes of paper records. It is your responsibility to find the documents you want, which will mean that you must patiently search through all the applicable files to find what you are searching for.

Also be sure to remember that each courthouse only has the criminal and arrest records that apply to their jurisdiction. So if the person you are investigating has committed a crime in another area you will need to repeat this process in that jurisdictions courthouse as well. This may require several trips to multiple courthouses to get the complete picture of the person you are checking on.

How To Get Criminal And Arrest Records Totally Free

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