Plea Bargaining Essay Example for Free

Plea Bargaining Essay Most cases are resolved through plea bargains. This is resulting from negotiations between the prosecutor and defense attorney. Plea bargains can be made at any stage of the criminal justice process. Plea bargains can be either a charge bargains or sentence bargains. There are advantages and disadvantages with plea bargains. With plea bargains, it can reflect the due process and crime control of the criminal justices. Plea bargain is an argument between the prosecutor and the defendant to plead guilty to a crime to receive a lesser charge or sentence rather than going to trial and getting a harsher sentence or charge. These bargains are another way for the prosecutor to have the defendant to testify against other defendants on other cases as well as the trail they are in. Plea bargains are another way to help reduce cases from going to trial. Usually please bargains are between the council and the defense attorney but the judge can have a factor in it depending on the jurisdiction. They can work with the judge for a predetermined sentence. If the prosecutor goes back on the agreement, the defendant can ask the judge for relief. The judge may use different tactics to go about this such as withdrawal of the agreement or have the prosecutor go through the agreement there are distinct types of plea bargain. Charge bargaining is the most common and used plea. Charge bargaining involve negotiating charges that would be filed. This plea bargain will be to lesser charges and the higher charges will be dismissed. Sentencing bargaining involves pleading guilty to the state charges and not to a reduced charge so that the agreement is for a lighter sentence. There is also a lesser used plea bargain called fact bargaining. This bargaining uses certain facts in return to not use other facts in the case that would cause a different verdict. The plea bargain has to follow through with these knowing rights: a knowing wavier of rights, a voluntary wavier, and a factual basis to support the charges t which the defendant is pleading guilty. Plea bargaining is often criticized but the majority of convictions are due to bargaining. The benefits a plea bargains is there for the defendant. The defendant has this as an option instead of a trial, its uncertainties and to avoid maximum sentence. For the courts it lightens their loads for the judges and the prosecutors. The disadvantages of plea bargains are for those who are innocent pleading guilty for a crime to avoid the harsher verdict if found guilty in a trial. The plea bargains require the defendants to give up their constitutional rights. Rights that are protected by the fifth and sixth amendment: the defendant will have to waive the right to a jury, the right against self-incrimination in the right to confront hostile witnesses. The plea bargains are accepted as long as the defendant understands the consequences and volunteers to do so. Now if the defendant is coerced to do a guilty plea then it is unconstitutional. It also makes law enforcement and lawyers lazy in doing their job because it is an easy way out of not taking the time to investigate and to prepare a decent case. The due process makes sure that the defendant is receiving fair treatment while in the criminal justice hands. Plea bargaining reflects the due process because if the prosecutor has all their facts together, they can pursue a case to avoid the motions of a trial. The counsel allows the defendant the option of the plea bargain. If accepted, their sentence is reduced. The crime control assumes all is guilty before court so the plea bargains will not likely to be used here. The crime control suggests everyone is guilty and they should be tried and punished before the court. Though they are on opposite ends, the due process and crime control model have benefits that all of the branches of the criminal justice can handle. To ensure those individuals are receiving fair trails, the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments are very valuable to the justice system. According to FindLaw (2013), â€Å"Judicial economy simply means that one goal of the judicial system is to conclude cases in an efficient and speedy manner. Without plea bargaining, it is widely believed that there would be an explosion of cases which in turn would overtax and disrupt the current legal system. † Plea bargains are a notion to a sure sentence. Going to trial can result in months or years of arguments, hung jury, and evidence being unaccounted for, and etc. Prosecutors prefer to settle cases with plea bargains than to juggle a verdict with a jury.

Morality in the Epic of Beowulf :: Epic of Beowulf Essays

Beowulf’s story is somewhat of an allegory in which he is depicted as the Christ figure. The theme of Beowulf is a contrast of good and evil which is manifest in both Christian and pagan elements; Beowulf represents good, while Grendel, his mother, and the dragon represent evil. The first monster our hero, Beowulf, faces is Grendel. Grendel is said to be a descendant of Cain. â€Å"Unhappy creature (Grendel), he lived for a time in the home of the monsters’ race, after God had condemned them as kin of Cain† (Norton, 28). Cain is the son of Eve, the woman who bore sin into the world. A connection, however vague, can be made between the maternal relations of Eve and Cain and Grendel and his mother. Grendel’s mother can be considered to personify man’s fall from grace and Grendel himself might embody sin. Furthermore, the dragon Beowulf battles can be said to be a picture of Satan: â€Å"the smooth hateful dragon who flies at night wrapped in flameâ⠂¬  (56). When facing Grendel, Beowulf relies on God alone to protect him, saying, "†¦may wise God, Holy Lord, assign glory on whichever hand seems good to Him† (36). When Beowulf tears off Grendel’s arm, Hrothgar remarks, â€Å"I endured much from the foe, many griefs from Grendel† (39). It could be said that the Christian foe is sin, which causes much grief. Against Grendel’s mother, original sin, Beowulf becomes the Christian soldier. When Beowulf struggles against Grendel’s mother, God grants him a precious gift: â€Å"The Wielder of Men granted me that I should see hanging on the wall a fair, ancient, great-sword – most often He has guided the man without friends – that I should wield the weapon† (Norton, 48). This great sword is further described as â€Å"a victory-blessed blade, an old sword made by the giants†¦ the work of giants† (Norton, 47). The sword used to slay Grendel’s mother is work of her ancestral giants, who were godly until they fell from grace. â€Å"From (Cain) sprang all bad breeds, trolls and elves and monsters – likewise the giants who for a long time strove with God† (Norton, 28). Therefore, the sword was god-forged and godly. Here the hero is using â€Å"the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God† to prevail (The Book of Ephesians 6.17, Bible). In his battle with the dragon (which may represent Satan) Beowulf is martyred, losing his life in the of the killing the dragon.

The Failed Offensive

The year 1961 saw the attempt of Cuban exiles to replace the Cuban government led by Fidel Castro, and it was on April 17 on the same year when aerial bombings were launched as an attack by a coalition backed by the United States against Cuba which later came to be known as the Bay of Pigs Invasion. Although the United States helped in the planning and in the funding of the invasion, it failed right after the night landing of the invasion was discovered which led to the defeat of the invasion just within three days.It is because of the immediate discovery and the reports about the invasion which practically enabled the Cuban government of Castro to frustrate the invasion and capture a large number of invaders. The consequence of the failed invasion is for Castro to start obtaining nuclear warheads from the Soviet government in the fear of another invasion backed by the United States, thereby leading to the Cuban Missile Crisis. History The history of the Bay of Pigs invasions stems b efore the time of the Kennedy administration.Miller and Miller observe that the strains between the relations of Cuba and America stems back from immigration issues. They observe that: As the number of immigrants increased, relations with Cuba began to deteriorate after 1959. In June 1960 U. S. oil refineries in Cuba refused to process Russian crude oil. The Cuban government retaliated by nationalizing the oil refineries. On July 5, 1960, the Cuban government nationalized all U. S. property in Cuba.In retaliation, the United States canceled Cuba's sugar export quota. This action amounted to an economic sanction against Cuba (Miller and Miller, p. 53). In the following years, the tension between the two countries grew and the desire to free Cuba from the leadership of Castro intensified. Miller and miller notes: Attempts to free Cuba from Castro's regime began under the Eisenhower administration, and under the Kennedy administration, U. S. -Cuban relations continued to deteriorate.Le ss than three months after becoming president, Kennedy authorized an invasion of Castro's regime by Cuban exiles on April 17, 1961. Regrettably for the United States, the 1,500-man exile force was defeated in less than 72 hours. The invasion increased Castro's political power and popularity. As William Goodwin, a White House advisor, stated: â€Å"It made him even more of a hero as the man who had defended Cuba against the greatest power in the world (Miller and Miller, p. 54). â€Å"Almost a year before the actual Bay of Pigs Invasion, the U. S. Central Intelligence Agency recommended to then-President Dwight Eisenhower a plan to equip Cuban exiles and use them for action against the newly established socialist Cuban government led by Fidel Castro. Since it was the policy of the American government to provide military, logistics and strategic assistance to guerilla forces fighting the government of Castro, the CIA pursued to train Cuban exiles for the mission.Among the first plan s to be adopted for the invasion is to land the Cuban exiles near the city of Trinidad, Cuba since the site gave a handful of choices for the brigade of Cuban exiles to exploit at the height of the invasion in the coming days. At the least, the site gave the exiles the advantage of a beach landing and of returning to the mountains for a possible retreat as the necessity would arise. However, the progress of the plans to invade Cuba led to several changes such as the change in the landing spot for Brigade 2506 from Trinidad to the Bay of Pigs.As a result, contacts with the rebels situated in the Escambray Mountains were cut thereby reducing the military support the Cuban exiles needed. Further, senior KGB operatives Osvaldo Sanchez Cabrera and â€Å"Aragon† warned the Cuban government about the forthcoming invasion, thus giving Castro and his military men the time to anticipate and plan their counter moves against the U. S. -backed offensive. All these changes in the invasion plan under the helm of President Kennedy after seeking information to his advisors if the overthrow of Fidel Castro could be tied with weapon shipments.The Invasion The invasion could be divided into at least three actions: sea, air and land offensives. The invasion was initiated with three flights of B-2B bombers on the early hours of April 15, 1961. As aircrafts with the markings of the Cuban Fuerza Armada Revolucionaria (CRAF) flew over and bombarded the airfields of Antonio Maceo International Airport, San Antonio de los Banos and Ciudad Libertad, counter air attacks against the CRAF, named Operation Puma, were also formed.In the attempt to paralyze the air force of the Cuban government through the air attacks, the first air operations failed primarily because the air strikes were discontinued as opposed to what was original intended. There was a second attempt to foil the air force of the Cuban government by launching another air attack. However, the second plan was cancelled b ecause President Kennedy hoped to make the operation look as if the Cuban exiles were the ones responsible in the attacks and not the U. S. government.By doing so, the American government can easily deny accusations of being held responsible for the operation. The cancellation of the air assaults on the air fields of Cuba largely contributed to the failure of the invasion and the deaths of many Cuban exiles. Almost two days after the failed air strikes, approximately 1,300 Cuban exiles landed at the Bay of Pigs situated at the Cuban southern coast. Armed with weapons provided by the American government, the exiles intended to proceed to Havana in the hopes of gaining local support.At first, the invaders were able to suppress the ground militia at the beach, forcing the Cuban forces to surrender. It was under the prerogative of President Kennedy to use air force to support ground troops but he never opted to do so. As a result, the armies of the government of Castro were able to stop the invading forces at the Bay of Pigs. Naval offenses also took a crucial role in the offensives, with the invader ship Blagar fighting off Cuban aircrafts and with the naval forces of Castro losing at least one ship, the P.C. Baire. The aftermath Although the exact number of deaths for the Cuban government is widely disputed, it can hardly be argued that the death toll went by the thousands. Interestingly, even though the casualties among the Cuban government were higher in contrast to the invading forces, the Castro government ended up gaining as much as $53 million worth of food and medicine in exchange for the lives of the captured exiles who were sentenced to thirty years in prison for treason.However, negotiations for the release of the captured exiles took almost twenty months which started from the demand of Castro for 500 large tractors to his demand of $28 million. In the end, 1,113 prisoners were released in exchange for $53 million worth of food and medicine; the funds were supposedly obtained from private donations. It was also reported that President Kennedy hesitated to back the ground forces of the Cuban exiles with further air strikes because Kennedy did not want a full scale war. In doing so, Kennedy effectively abandoned the Cuban exiles fighting on the ground against the forces of Fidel Castro.More importantly, the CIA believed that the invasion would lead to a spark in the sentiment of the people against the government of Castro thereby gaining the support of the Cubans with the offensive. In its entirety, Erich Weede observes that the failure of the invasion reinforced the ironies in the decisions and motives of the United States. Weede argues that: The Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961 was the most important case of vacillation and inconsistency: President John F. Kennedy would have liked to get rid of Fidel Castro and to replace him by a more friendly government, but he did not want to send in U.S. troops when Cuban exiles were not up to the task. The Bay of Pigs disaster only reinforced Castro's hostility toward the United States (Weede, p. 136). Thus, one of the consequences of the failure in the Bay of Pigs is the increased hostility of Fidel Castro towards the United States, which also led to his forging an informal alliance with the Soviet Union, a nation which has been a firm opponent of America. The observation of Weede reinforces the idea that Kennedy was playing things safe, owing to the fact that Cuban exiles were the primary ‘tools’ in engaging the Cuban government into a hostile battle.Piero Gleijeses further notes that one of the causes of the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasions is the â€Å"miscommunication between the CIA and the White House† and that it would have been â€Å"politically costly for Kennedy to have aborted the operation† (Gleijeses, p. 2). He stresses the point that: The Bay of Pigs was approved because the CIA and the White House assumed they were sp eaking the same language when, in fact, they were speaking in utterly different tongues (Gleijeses, p. 2). Gleijeses’ observation indicates that the â€Å"miscommunication between the CIA and the White House (Gleijeses, p.2)† contributed to the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion, stemming back to the discontinuation of the plans first determined prior to the attacks at the Bay. At the aftermath of the failed attempt to invade Cuba right from the Bay of Pigs, Lucien Vandenbroucke observed that Kennedy and his advisers â€Å"did not carefully weigh competing alternatives and then select the invasion of Cuba as the best policy† without taking into account the fact that â€Å"Castro had over 200,000 men in arms and the benefit of the Guatemalan precedent† (Vandenbroucke, p. 472).He further noted that: Carried out deftly enough to conceal the American hand, [the Bay of Pigs invasion] promised to deal with Castro while preserving the United State’s imag e. In short, then, the rational actor model suggests that the lack of other viable alternatives prompted the choice of the invasion, which appeared best in terms of a rational cost-benefit analysis (Vandenbroucken, p. 472). There is little or no disagreement over the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion which resulted to the increased tension between the United States and Cuban governments.As the tensions increased, Fidel Castro apparently looked for ways to strengthen his military capabilities and, thus, the military aid by the Soviet Union in terms of nuclear warheads was a tempting option to be easily discarded. The years that followed soon paved the way for the Cuban Missile Crisis which further smeared the capabilities of the Kennedy administration to handle tough situations which involve the security of the United States.Had the Bay of Pigs invasion been a success, there were promising chances for the American government to further launch successful offensives against the Castr o government with the aid of the Cuban exiles (Dominguez, p. 20). Works Cited Dominguez, Jorge I. â€Å"Us-Cuban Relations in the 1980s: Issues and Policies. † Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs 27. 1 (1985): 20. Gleijeses, Piero. â€Å"Ships in the Night: The Cia, the White House and the Bay of Pigs. † Journal of Latin American Studies 27. 1 (1995): 2. Miller, Willard E. , and Ruby M. Miller. â€Å"The U. S.Invasion of Cuba: The Bay of Pigs. † United States Immigration: A Reference Handbook. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 1996. 53, 54. Vandenbroucke, Lucien S. â€Å"Anatomy of a Failure: The Decision to Land at the Bay of Pigs. † Political Science Quarterly 99. 3 (1984): 472. Weede, Erich. † Patterns of International Conflict During the Cold War and the Contemporary Challenge. † Economic Development, Social Order, and World Politics: With Special Emphasis on War, Freedom, the Rise and Decline of the West, and the Future of East Asia . Boulder, CO: Boulder Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1996. 136.

Teenage Alcohol Abuse - 1465 Words

Alcohol Abuse in Teenagers Underage alcohol abuse is a growing problem in the lives of teenagers today. Almost 80% of high school students have tried alcohol (Dowshen). To effectively combat this growing epidemic, teens need to understand the effects of consuming alcohol, and adults need to recognize the problem and effectively prevent alcohol abuse. Though many teenagers do not realize it, alcohol can significantly affect a teen’s life, including short-term impacts on the teen’s popularity and reputation and long-lasting impacts on a teen’s ability to lead a successful and healthy life. Despite the profound effects alcohol may have on the life of a teenager, a teenager’s parents and other authority figures often do not recognize the†¦show more content†¦A teenager must pay for his actions whether he meant no harm or not (Hicks). One reason many parents may be misinformed or uninformed concerning teen alcohol abuse is because alcohol has becom e easier and easier for teenagers to obtain over the years. Whether it is with a fake ID, people â€Å"of age† buying it for them, or just obtaining substances right out of the refrigerator at home teens seem to be able to get alcohol without a problem (Henshaw). Teenagers can acquire fake IDs more easily now than they could have in the past. All you have to do is know the right people. For example, a recent story of a girl 14 years of age purchasing a fake ID shows how easy it is for teens now a days to obtain fake IDs (Kavehkar). The local Phillips gas station has been reported to the police for allowing underage children to purchase alcohol. Because fake IDs have become so popular and easy to obtain, those who work at gas stations need to be more observant to whom they sell their alcohol. 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