Zara Khan

The Impact of Plea Bargaining on Existing Disparities in the American Legal System

Started Feb. 22, 2024

Abstract or project description

Project description (draft): Plea bargaining has been used in the criminal justice system as a way to facilitate discrimination. There are many compounding factors surrounding minority mistreatment and overrepresentation within the legal realm that this paper addresses and connects to sentencing discrimination that comes with plea bargaining. Overall, this paper intends to discuss the coercive nature of plea deals and how legal representation affects which demographics accepts plea deals. Some primary issues as to why plea bargains are such a big issue today is because of its gross overuse. This causes ethical and moral concerns to rise as many believe that one should not be able to negotiate justice. Some solutions that this paper discusses is the removal of pretrial detention and mandatory minimums.