0 a legal process in which someone who has been accused of a crime is allowed to admit to being guilty of a less serious crime, in order to avoid a trial:
the system of plea bargaining
1 the legal discussion that may result in a plea bargain
Through plea bargaining , the two were able to evade the murder charge by agreeing to plead guilty to a single charge of conspiracy to violate a person’s civil rights resulting in death.
Legal experts wonder about the impact on the plea bargaining process.
The over-reliance on plea bargaining makes it more likely juveniles would be convicted of a crime they did not commit or convicted of a harsher charge than they deserved, the report states.
Most of the plea bargaining involved people in jail charged with state jail felonies, the least-serious classification of felony crime, such as prostitution, burglary and drug possession.
