January 2011 Topic = Plea Bargaining

Resolved: In the United States, plea bargaining undermines the criminal justice system.

Crappy topic you say? I agree, but do we really have a choice here NO! Let's just suck it up and get through it together. Now that were on the same page, let's get on to the important stuff shall we.

Basics:
Definition of plea bargaining from Dictionary.com:

an agreement between a prosecutor and a defendant whereby the defendant is allowed to plead guilty to a lesser charge rather than risk conviction for a graver crime in order to avoid a protracted trial or to win the defendant's cooperation as a witness.

Google Dictionary definition

Pro

Con
Con Arguments for January

January Con Arguments

Disclaimer: These are not all my arguments. I have pulled them from various resources.

This post from Debate Central is a good starting point: January Topic Overview

Debate Central Post Summary
1. The negative can make the case that without plea bargaining, the criminal justice system would not work.

2. Plea bargaining allows the prosecutor and the defense to tailor the outcome of the trial to the specific needs of the case at hand.

3. Plea bargaining allows the state to best allocate resources.

Other Ideas

1. Plea bargaining decreases congestion in the courts

2. Plea bargaining can be used to get testimony against the truly guilty. I.E., you give a mob hit man a plea deal so that he can give testimony against the head of the mob, benefiting the greater good.

3. Plea bargaining is used to battle minimum sentencing laws.