Plea Bargaining Assignment
Summary of the Case: In 2008 public schools in the Atlanta area boasted high gains over previous year’s test scores. These gains, that were significant enough to stand out, were investigated in 2009 by the state of Georgia and found to be the result of cheating in at least 40 schools. During the investigations, it was found that Superintendent Hall and others had created a difficult working environment through either fear and retaliation or pay raises, bonuses and promotions. It was found that cheating, including erasing incorrect answers and instructing students to change answers, was permitted at all levels. These investigations led to the indictment of 35 Atlanta Public School (APS) employees, in March of
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2013. Prior to trial, Judge Jerry Baxter encouraged all involved to take responsibility for their actions and work out a plea agreement with prosecutors as this would be a lighter sentence that he would be handing down. Of the 35 indicted, 21 accepted a pre-trial plea bargain that included probation, paying of fines, performing community service, and eventually having their records wiped clean.
The remaining 12 including Michael Pitts, Sharon Davis-Williams, Tamara Cotman, Donald Bullock, Dana Evans, Tabeeka Jordan, Diane Buckner-Webb, Pamela Cleveland, Theresia Copeland, Angela Williamson, Dessa Curb and Shari Robinson chose not to accept the plea bargain. Only one of the defendants, Dessa Curb, was acquitted while the remaining 11 were convicted of a variety of charges, including racketeering, false swearing and false statements. Prior to sentencing, Judge Baxter again urged remaining defendants to strike a plea bargain. The pleas being offered were: Michal Pitts, Sharon Davis-Williams and Tamara Cotman: a 5-year sentence that would include 1 year of time served weekends only, the rest would be probation and a $10,000 fine; Donald Bullock, Dana Evans, and Tabeeka Jordan’s: 6 months in jail to be served on weekends and a $5,000 fine; Diane Buckner-Webb, Pamela Cleveland, Theresia Copeland and Angela Williamson: 1-year home confinement and $1,000 fine. Shari Robinson’s plea information was not noted. All of the pleas came with the stipulation that the defendants could not appeal. Only 2 of the defendants, Donald Bullock and Pamela Cleveland, chose the plea bargain; they received sentences that involved house arrest or weekend jail
time only, fines and community service. The remaining sentences varied from the high end, 20 years (7 to serve), $25,000 fine, and 2,000 hours of community service to the low end of 5 years (1 to serve) $1,000 fine and 1,000 hours of community service. Type of Plea Bargain: Sentence reduction. Who is best served: In this instance I feel that the best served is a bit divided. In the first set of (pre-trial) plea bargains both the defendant and the prosecution receive benefits, the defendants receive reduced sentencing and the prosecution decreased court costs and removing the option to appeal. However, in the second set of plea bargains the defendants are best served. The defendant, while not receiving the same benefits of the earlier plea agreement, still received sentence reduction. The state, on the other hand, had already suffered the cost of the trial preparation so there was no cost savings, and the defendants had the right to appeal.
The defendants in the case were Brian Whitfield, Marsha Whitfield, and Edwin Todd. Though Marsha Whitfield and Edwin Todd were indicted they chose to accept plea deals and avoid trial proceedings.
On April 5, 1999, 22 year old, Aaron McKinney was found guilty of felony murder, second-degree murder, kidnapping and robbery. 21 year old, Russell Henderson pled guilty to kidnapping and felony murder and was sentenced to two consecutive life terms. Two women described as the suspects girlfriends, Chasity Vera Pasley (20) and Krista Lean Price (18) were charged as accessories after the fact of first-degree murder (The Data Lounge, Issues 2000, [on-line]).
To begin, Mary Sherry discusses the corrupt school system that lingers. In her article, we obtain insight on how schools
Leslie Baldwin entered a guilty plea on all charges against him. Trevor Mellis and Keith Romig both initially pled not guilty, but later changed their pleas. Julian Levene managed to have his rape charge lowered to unlawful sexual intercourse, which he pled guilty to, along with the other charges against
...riends and acquaintances. Nobody could even remember seeing the boys together. Despite the lack of evidence, all three teens were found guilty. Echols was sentenced to receive the death penalty and Baldwin and Misskelley were sentenced to life in prison. They each served 18 years in prison before appealing their convictions. The DNA evidence was retested and found that it did not match any of the boys DNA. Additionally, it was found that there was jury and foreman misconduct during the trial (a member of the jury had discussed the case with an attorney and had pushed for the guilt of the West Memphis Three), as well as police misconduct during the invegation. Due to these factors, the prosections came to an Alford plea deal, in which the defendents please to “No Contest” but still maintain their innocence. They were released from prison and sentenced to time served.
“The trial was brought to a speedy conclusion. Not only did Judge Evans find the twelve guilty, fine them $100 each, and committed them to jail, but five people in the courtroom who had served as witnesses for the defense arrested. […] The police were then instructed to transfer the seventeen prisoners that night to the county jail”(30).
I would like to take this time to explain my position on Plea Bargains and Mandatory Sentencing. I will show both pros and cons for each topic, as well as give you my personal brief on which one I support.
20 May 2014. This article shows a majority of the cases that are relevant to the topic and research questions; it clearly shows the articles that are involved with public schools and how and what they did. It helps answer that research question because it shows that some of the schools are capable of bypassing the system, but sometimes get overturned. Paulson, Ken. A.
Cheating can be a common routine in a classroom—from copying work on homework to copying answers on a test. “Cheating by teachers and administrators on standardized tests is rare, and not a reason to stop testing America's children” (Standardized Tests). This statement is proved false by the fact that thirty-seven states have been caught cheating by “encouraging teachers to view upcoming test forms before they are administered” (“FairTest Press Release: Standardized Exam Cheating in 37 States And D.C., New Report Shows Widespread Test Score Corruption”). If teachers can view a test before it is administered, they can teach to the test so that their students’ scores are higher. Teachers who have viewed the test can then “drill students on actual upcoming test items” (“FairTest Press Release: Standardized Exam Cheating in 37 States And D.C., New Report Shows Widespread Test Score Corruption”). This is morally wrong since teachers who do not have the access to an actual test or those who refuse to view it do not know what would be on the test and cover a broad domain of material, not just specifics.
A negotiation, a contract, and many more ways used to describe the Criminal Justice System’s notion of plea bargaining. Plea bargaining has been around for a long time, but it is not until recent times that the use of a plea bargain has become a common practice. Defendants are given the chance to plead guilty for a lesser sentence and thus waive their right to trial. However, certain concerns relating to the actual guilt of defendants and the professionalism of the attorneys assigned to a case arise from an ethical stand point. Solutions offered to improve the practice of plea bargaining are often in two extremes. In one extreme, some argue for abolishment. In the other extreme, some state that plea bargaining simply needs to be reformed.
Plea-bargaining constitutes one of the staples of the American Criminal Justice system. The practice entails an agreement between the prosecutor and the defendant in criminal cases where for the most part the defendant forgoes his trial by pleading guilty to his respective charges. By pleading guilty, the defendant receives a less severe charge compared to the original. The plea by the defendant saves an enormous amount of time for both parties since they do not allocate resources in order to prepare for trial. Similarly, the availability of money is also a factor of the plea-bargaining practice because instead the defendants can save a substantial amount of money the trial might cost. Theoretically, with the majority of criminal cases using
95% of all criminal cases are resolved by plea bargains, the new face of America's criminal justice system. Plea bargains are only beneficial for the government and the justice system, not the people. Plea bargains are not effective in the judicial due process because they result in lenient deals on sentencing, violate the people's constitutional rights and punish the innocent.
In the contemporary American education system high-stakes standardized testing has resulted in a focus on extensive test preparation, as well as a large increase in the numbers of teachers cheating by alternating their students' test scores. Both these phenomena are a direct consequence of the incentives and punishments directly linked to standardized test results.
The Atlanta Public School system was involved in what some describe as one of the largest scandals in United States history. The scandal was uncovered by the Atlanta Journal – Constitution after research showed “statistically improbable increases” in test scores. A two-year investigation ensued and reviled test scores dating all the way back to 2005 were tampered with. In 2011 the investigation concluded 44 of the 56 schools examined were found cheating. The educators violated a numerous amount of code sections. Felonies, if found guilty are punishable by nothing less than five years, maximum twenty years. The number of educators with involvement in the scandal was astronomical. One-hundred and seventy eight educators helped orchestrate the plan to raise the CRCT test scores. CRCT stands for Criterion – Referenced Competency Test. This test is given to students from grades one through eight. The purpose of this test is to assess the students in areas such as reading, English, mathematics, social studies and science.
Alfie Kohn, author of The Case against Standardized Testing, recalls a specific incident of how children are being cheated out of valuable class time. He states that a school in Massachusetts used a remarkable unit, for a middle-school class, where students chose an activity and extensively researched it, and reported or taught, it to the class. This program has had to be removed from the course curriculum in order to devote enough time to teaching prescribed material for their standardized tests.