THE NORTH AMERICAN PLEA BARGAINING SYSTEM AND THE PROBABLE DECLINE OF THE TRIAL BY JURY

Abstract

The aim of this work is to briefly reflect on the North American system called Plea Bargaining, addressing some of its characteristics, taking into account, mainly, its relationship with the Trial by Jury, as a constitutional right guaranteed by the Sixth Constitutional Amendment. Its current prevalence over the jury trial is also analyzed, a fact that is demonstrated through North American research that raised the number of cases submitted to Plea Bargaining in recent times. And the question that arises is whether the Plea Bargaining machine would be the probable downfall of the Trial by Jury, in reference to an article by George Bisharat. Thus, issues related to the costs of the full trial are addressed, as opposed to the alleged benefits of the agreement in criminal matters and the Plead of Guilty. The present work starts from a qualitative approach, resorting to theoretical contributions on the subject and documental research, without the intention of answering the proposed question, but with the objective of bringing reflections on some problems that the machine of consensual justice, such as operated today in the USA, has faced, mainly with regard to the danger of punishing the innocent.