plea bargain
64
4.2
- noun
- /pliː ˈbɑːrɡən/
- Specialized
:
acuerdo de culpabilidad
- Well, tonight, News Center 7 has learned... that attorneys for Vincent DeStephano... have reached a plea bargain arrangement with prosecutors... that may have DeStephano serving only seven months on charges of simple assault... before being eligible for parole in mid-February.
- accept a plea bargain
- plea bargain at trial
- American plea bargain
But at some point, I believe that Maxwell will have to take a plea bargain.
- But at some point, I believe that Maxwell will have to take a plea bargain.
Examples
-
Edmondson reaches a plea bargain with the company.
Academic text (2004) -
I'm gonna take the plea bargain and go into witness protection.
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You wanted to enter some sort of plea bargain.
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And then we can talk about your plea bargain.
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A Consent Agreement is similar to a plea bargain in a criminal case.
Blog text (4) -
A St. Paul man was recently asked to consider a plea bargain with prosecutors.
Blog text (7) -
They gave me a plea bargain and I took it.
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It was a plea bargain with the courts.
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Most criminal complaints regarding parental abduction result in dismissals or plea bargains.
Academic text (2017) -
The defendant accepted a plea bargain to reduce his sentence for the lesser charge.
Synonyms
363
2.5
An agreement where each side gives up something to reach a solution
276
2.0
An agreement made after discussion that says what each side must do
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound is compositionally analyzable: 'plea' (a defendant's formal reply) combined with 'bargain' (a negotiated agreement) clearly yields an agreement concerning a plea, so learners can infer it refers to a negotiated legal arrangement. However, the specific procedural sense (pleading guilty to a lesser charge or exchanging charges for a lighter sentence) is legal-domain knowledge not fully predictable from the parts, making the expression only partially transparent.
Etymology
Plea bargain comes from the simple image of a plea (someone asking for mercy) and a bargain (a deal). In court, the person accused 'pleads guilty' to a smaller charge as part of a deal with the prosecutors to get a 'lighter sentence', so the phrase means an agreement to avoid a full trial.