When the Constitution was written, most criminal cases were disposed of via jury trial. So, to placate opponents who pointed out that there was no relevant protection in the original Constitution, the Founding Fathers quickly added the Sixth Amendment. In addition to a jury trial guarantee, this provision also guarantees some other important rights, like the right to directly confront accusing witnesses and the right to counsel.
But about 100 years later, in the late 1880s, plea bargain agreements began to appear, mostly because the volume increased dramatically. In the 1780s, a busy criminal court might handle 100 cases a month. By 1880, an ordinary caseload might have been 100 cases a week, and by 1980, perhaps 100 cases a day. About the same time that plea bargains appeared, non-jury bench trials also became more common.
The bottom line is that there are basically three ways to resolve a case, and each method has some benefits for criminal defendants, at least in some cases.
Plea Bargain
Today, about 94% of criminal cases are disposed of during pretrial negotiations between the prosecutor and defense attorney. That is roughly equal to the percentage of civil cases that are settled out-of-court. In the typical plea bargain agreement, the defendant pleads guilty to a lesser offense, or the prosecutor agrees to reduce the punishment to the charged offense. Theoretically, the judges supervise the process. But in reality, negotiations occur behind closed doors and although the judges have the authority to reject plea bargain agreements, they almost never exercise this power.
The plea bargain system has some advantages for defendants:
- Duration: Cases are disposed of much more quickly, a fact that also makes plea bargains popular with prosecutors.
- Predictability: Instead of the uncertainty involved in a trial, the defendants know exactly what outcome to expect.
However, if defendants have particularly strong defenses, a plea bargain may not be appropriate.
Bench Trials
Procedurally, non-jury trials are almost exactly like jury trials, except that the lawyers do not normally make opening statements. Furthermore, the judges serve as both the fact-finder and the legal referee who decides legal questions. Technically, the prosecutors must agree to the defendant’s jury trial waivers in Federal Court, but as is the case with judges rejecting plea bargain agreements, prosecutors almost never withhold their consent in these matters. Unlike the Federal system, the prosecution has no right to a jury trial in State Court.
There are several occasions when a bench trial may be preferable over a jury trial:
- Nature of Crime: Some criminal defense lawyers believe that murder, rape, and other serious crimes should never go to jury trials, due to the possibility of juror bias; others counter that jurors take their oaths seriously, at least for the most part, and try their best to be impartial.
- Predictability: There is never any guarantee whatsoever, but sometimes attorneys can predict how judges may respond to certain arguments and certain types of evidence.
Speed may be the biggest advantage. In most jurisdictions, defendants must wait several months for a jury trial date as opposed to a few weeks for a bench trial.
Jury Trials
These proceedings tend to be much more formal than bench trials, but that is certainly not the only difference. Perhaps most significantly, in jury trials, attorneys must only convince one juror that there is a reasonable doubt as to the evidence, and the defendants will be judged not guilty. Moreover, many judges are former prosecutors, so an argument can be made that jurors are more impartial, at least in some situations.
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