112 replies to this topic

[Elric]

So im making a weekly debate thread. For those who like debates or have ideas for topics, pm me. The topic will change every week or so. If the debate gets boring and no posts on the topic are made a new topic will be posted. Keep in mind debating is civil and polite.

This weeks topic - plea bargaining. Are you for it or against it?

[AMAC]

I think this is a great idea for a thread. I enjoy a good debate/argument. I might PM you sometime with some topics if I Can think of any.

I'm against plea bargaining. Firstly, I think that it's soft on criminals. At the end of the day, if someone has committed a crime, their sentence should not be reduced simply because they agree to plea guilty. It can also lead to innocent people pleading guilty. An innocent person without a proper defence will sometimes use plea bargaining as they believe they will be given a worse sentence if they don't.

[Ruthie]

I'm going to play devil's advocate just to make the debate more interesting because I'm not sure there are a lot of people for plea barganing (but I could be wrong )

I'm for plea bargaining because it saves time and money. Without plea bargaining every single case would have to be dragged through the courts which is an expensive and messy affair.

Rather than being "soft on criminals" I think it offers those who are genuinely remorseful for their crimes to get a weaker sentence than a cold and heartless person.

Also plea bargaining on less serious crimes such as fly tipping or parking offences free up the courts for more serious crimes like murder and rape. Wouldn't you rather the courts focus on those?

[Epic Kirby]

I'm going to play devil's advocate just to make the debate more interesting because I'm not sure there are a lot of people for plea barganing (but I could be wrong )

I'm for plea bargaining because it saves time and money. Without plea bargaining every single case would have to be dragged through the courts which is an expensive and messy affair.

Rather than being "soft on criminals" I think it offers those who are genuinely remorseful for their crimes to get a weaker sentence than a cold and heartless person.

Also plea bargaining on less serious crimes such as fly tipping or parking offences free up the courts for more serious crimes like murder and rape. Wouldn't you rather the courts focus on those?

People will fake remorse if they think that they will get anything out of it. The fact of the matter is not who is cold or heartless, the fact is they both committed a crime. Crime is dealt with by punishment. I do agree that some crimes should be dealth with by plea bargains because if absolutely none were then cases would take even longer to get to talk (they already take long enough). The delays would probably be decades.

[Elric]

If we got rid of plea bargaining think of how clogged up the court system would really be. If we got rid of plea bargaining the court will be even more clogged than it already is, and we cannot afford that. Plea bargaining doesent even happen murder, I think. Correct me if im wrong on that statement. Plea bargaining does benefit us alot, by helping the court system to be less clogged up. Is there a benefit to not having plea bargaining?

[Wertville]

Removing plea bargaining will lead to case ALA Phoenix Wright... Every case would have to be dealt within 3 days. Maybe not to that extreme... But it wouldn't give much time to do anything.

[Epic Kirby]

@Ruthie, I think the for and against are pretty much even

People will fake remorse if they think that they will get anything out of it. The fact of the matter is not who is cold or heartless, the fact is they both committed a crime. Crime is dealt with by punishment. I do agree that some crimes should be dealth with by plea bargains because if absolutely none were then cases would take even longer to get to court(they already take long enough). The delays would probably be decades.

That's right I'm going against myself

If we got rid of plea bargaining think of how clogged up the court system would really be. If we got rid of plea bargaining the court will be even more clogged than it already is, and we cannot afford that. Plea bargaining doesent even happen murder, I think. Correct me if im wrong on that statement. Plea bargaining does benefit us alot, by helping the court system to be less clogged up. Is there a benefit to not having plea bargaining?

Removing plea bargaining will lead to case ALA Phoenix Wright... Every case would have to be dealt within 3 days. Maybe not to that extreme... But it wouldn't give much time to do anything.

But surely there should be no compromise for dealing out justice? If we believe that justice is a good thing then we should make sure it is done no matter what the consequence whether it leads to clogging of the courts or high prices of lawyer fees. If we don't and allow people to 'bargain' and barter they're punishment as you would for store goods then what right do we have to call it a justice system. In summary they're should be no price for justice.

@superdarkyoshi, yes plea barganing does happen on murder cases I think, for example people will plead guilty and get manslaughter charges instead of murder for example or lesser years on their sentence.

[Elric]

I believe now in the day we live in their is a price for justice. If we don't have plea bargaining ( the price) justice will be harder to give out. But with plea bargaining, although we pay a price, justice is still served.

[HaHa-No]

Pleading guilty... hmmm, I don't like the fact the sentence will get shortened. Remorse is incredibly easy to fake, (it needs to be with the ammount of bumping heads at my school...) A robber could rob, say, £1000 and say in court 'I plead guilty' and his sentence would, on most occasion be shortened? I don't think that seems quite right, does it?

[Elric]

Pleading guilty... hmmm, I don't like the fact the sentence will get shortened. Remorse is incredibly easy to fake, (it needs to be with the ammount of bumping heads at my school...) A robber could rob, say, £1000 and say in court 'I plead guilty' and his sentence would, on most occasion be shortened? I don't think that seems quite right, does it?

I believe though you can plea bargain in certain circumstances

[Elric]

Ok, new topic.

The war between the middle east and the united states. Are you for it, or against it?

[AMAC]

I'm undecided, but I'm going to argue against it. I don't think that Britain and the USA should be spending huge amounts of money and risking the lives of soldiers for a this war. I think that we're wasting our resources on fighting the Taliban as they don't affect the west. Also, from what I've red and seen on the news, a lot of the people in Afghanistan aren't especially keen on the US and UK troops being in their country. In conclusion, the US and the UK should pull out of the Afghanistan/Iraq war.

[Ruthie]

I'm for what they seem to be wanting to achieve but against the methods that they are using to obtain it and the fact that they're reason for the war in the middle east seems to be cloudy. I'm not actually sure that it makes logical sense to try and create peace by war.

[Elric]

I'm for what they seem to be wanting to achieve but against the methods that they are using to obtain it and the fact that they're reason for the war in the middle east seems to be cloudy. I'm not actually sure that it makes logical sense to try and create peace by war.

I believe the united states invaded for revenge on the terrorists on 9/11. But since bin laden is dead now, I suppose the only reason they are actually still their is because they are afraid of another attack.

[Ephesus]

I think their presence there is what's provoking those attacks in the first place.
How would you feel if you were a CIVILIAN, whose house can get broken into by armed and paranoid soldiers any second?

[AWiiLoverNamedGoo]

I believe the war is more about money and power than revenge. Oil, and the greenback has been at the heart of it for a very long time. It might not seem fair or just to risk lives for that, but it is very human.

[Droenix]

The War on Terrorism is a pointless war and creating economic problems for the United States and other European countries. We should just let the Middle East solve their own problems and if they can't, so be it. When the United Nations was created, the United States could no longer stay neutral to the rest of the world's problems and thus we're expected to help out other countries, when we ourselves have other major problems to worry about.

I can understand why we went after al Qaeda in the first place, but it's not worth spending hundreds of billions of dollars over. In fact, I believe we're also stepping in the wrong direction when it's coming to nuclear technology. Nuclear power is a very strong source of energy and now that the world is worried about a similar situation occurring in their country because of what happened to Japan, I feel that we are stepping backwards and not moving forwards. I can understand why countries would be afraid to use it, as it's fatal when it's unconfined, but why waste such a useful resource? Just my thoughts on the debate topic and another topic I decided just to throw in.

[Storm]

The war between the middle east and the united states. Are you for it, or against it?

Hard to say since that doesn't exist.

[Ruthie]

Hard to say since that doesn't exist.

Doesn't it?

Also http://www.guardian....aq.iraqtimeline, nuff said.

[Storm]

Middle East =/= Iraq.

Or Afghanistan or Libya for that matter. Or all of them combined.