Word: plea
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...accused get to use it," says Colorado Law School Professor Albert H. Alschuler. "That's like solving America's transportation problems by giving | 10% Cadillacs and making the rest go barefoot." For most defendants, justice is done by way of a deal: a guilty plea in exchange for the promise of reduced charges or a lighter sentence. Bargains are generally struck with the prosecutor; the judge usually rubber-stamps them...
...Plea bargaining is as widely criticized as it is prevalent. Defendants claim they are railroaded into abandoning their right to a fair trial by zealous prosecutors who "overcharge" them and then agree to reduce the charge in exchange for a guilty plea. The public, on the other hand, complains that criminal defendants get off too lightly. In plea bargaining, armed robbery often becomes unarmed robbery (this is known as "swallowing the gun"), and burglaries by night miraculously become the lesser crime of burglary...
Many lawyers and prosecutors defend plea bargaining as "flexible," claiming that bargaining can shape the sentence to the individual defendant. What is more, says Maricopa County (Ariz.) Attorney Charles Hyder, it is "the greatest weapon a prosecutor has. The prosecutor is in the driver's seat. Usually the defendant is not aware of any weaknesses in a case...
...strongest argument for deal making, however, is sheer necessity. Approved of by Congress and the President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice, plea bargaining has been condoned by the U.S. Supreme Court as "essential." It is widely accepted that without deals between the prosecutor and the accused, time-consuming trials would cause many courts to choke on overcrowded dockets. Chief Justice Warren Burger has said that even a 10% reduction in plea bargaining would double the number of trials...
...Steinbrenner was not convicted, nor was he tried. After plea bargaining, he agreed to plead guilty to two charges of violating the campaign contributions law and was fined a total...