If we had to litigate every single case, if we had to go to trial in every single case,

the government's resources would be much more constrained, it would be much more difficult for them to arrest and most importantly

prosecute and sentence and punish as many people as it does.

plea bargaining thereby really goes hand in hand with mass incarceration.

We couldn't afford mass incarceration, as it were,

if we didn't have plea bargaining.

Hey everyone, I'm Clint Smith and I'm Josie Duffy Rice. This is Justice

in America. Each show we discuss a topic in the American criminal justice

system and try to explain what it is and how it works.

Thank you everyone for joining us today.

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We started the show with a clip from our guests, Alexandra Nadapoth, who was a

professor of law at the University of California Irvine School of Law.

She'll join us later in the show to help us discuss today's topic.

And today we're talking about plea deals.

Yep, also known as plea bargaining, coping the plea, cutting a deal, you get the point.

So now plea deals are really important in the American criminal justice system, like astronomically

important, but before we get to how important... a plea bargaining. Well, a plea bargain is basically when a defendant pleases guilty in exchange for a lesser sentence.

So in theory, and I stress in theory a plea bargain process kind of looks like this. So a defendant is accused of committing a crime and the person is clearly guilty like there's evidence beyond a reasonable doubt of their guilt.

The prosecution offers them a deal, either a lesser

...