Plea bargaining first made its way into the criminal justice system during the mid-nineteenth century and has since become a powerful tool in adjudicating cases. There appears to be much debate over why plea bargaining has developed but one thing is clear and that is there is no singular answer. The most common factors cited in the rise of plea bargaining include: crowded court dockets, the oppressiveness of pretrial detention, the low quality of public defenders, the financial incentives of private attorneys, lazy prosecutors and uninformed judges. Several of these examples are not very complimentary to the players in the criminal justice system suggesting that we are sacrificing justice in the name of laziness and personal greed. In speaking with those in the Utah legal community, both judges and attorneys alike, have suggested plea bargaining is a necessary tool to keep the wheels of justice moving and without it, justice would come to a screeching halt. The overwhelming support in favor of plea bargaining is due in part to budget constraints and overcrowded dockets however, plea bargaining continues to develop in areas where court congestion is not a problem suggesting that plea bargaining is not simply a knee jerk response to a system overwhelmed but instead a shift in previously defined roles and how they affect justice.

In a cost benefit analysis; there are some very definite benefits to plea bargaining as opposed to taking every case to trial. Many supporters suggest plea bargaining has more to offer the players in the criminal justice process than a trial based system. It is suggested that plea bargaining allows the prosecutor to be more efficient, thereby being able to handle a greater case load than if more cases went to trial. The same would be true as well for judges, as they would be able to effectively handle a greater case load, and move their cases along with little or no delay. This is very attractive for judges who are faced with increasing pressure, due to case volume, to keep their docket moving. Additionally, plea bargaining is perceived as offering the accused a choice. There is a strong incentive in choosing plea bargaining over trial for both the prosecutor and the accused because there is more control over the outcome.

However, as attractive as plea bargaining looks from the standpoint of efficiency, cost effectiveness and predictability, there is also a downside. Plea bargaining gives enormous control over the outcome of the case to a single player in the process, the prosecutor. By giving such control to the prosecutor, it effectively removes the judge and reduces their role to that of an overseer of events. This is a far cry from the more active traditional role referenced previously. Similar to the different branches of government, the criminal justice system is based on a division of authority where no singular person has greater authority than another. Each person, the prosecutor, defense attorney and judge, has a role in the trial process which helps to ensure the victim, society and the individual rights of the accused are protected in the search for truth. By circumventing this process in favor of one which puts more power in the hands of a single person, the truth finding process is compromised in favor of efficiency.

From a defense perspective, plea bargaining is a lot like playing the odds in Las Vegas. The defendant must guess at what the evidence is and how strong the case is against him and hope that he does not guess wrong. In this situation, you run the risk of extracting guilty pleas from an innocent defendant who takes the safer bet but society pays as well in the case of a guilty defendant who due to plea bargaining gets a lighter sentence.

Critics of plea bargaining argue compromising the outcome of a case through the plea bargaining process is morally wrong. Indeed, the critics suggest efficiency is not enough to justify a system which although resolving some issues creates others such as wrongful convictions, broad prosecutorial power and sacrificing trials in favor of pleas.  Ultimately plea bargaining plays an important role in the Utah criminal justice system and will not be going away anytime soon.