A plea bargain is a negotiated criminal-case resolution in which the defendant agrees to plead guilty or no contest under agreed terms.
Plea bargain is a negotiated resolution of a criminal case in which the defendant agrees to plead guilty or no contest under specific agreed terms, often involving reduced charges, sentencing recommendations, or dismissal of other counts.
Plea bargaining matters because many criminal cases end through negotiated resolution rather than full trial. The term is central to understanding how prosecutors, defendants, and courts manage risk, time, evidence problems, and sentencing exposure.
It also matters because people often assume a plea bargain means the defendant was fully exonerated or fully defeated. In reality, it is a negotiated procedural outcome.
The term appears in criminal dockets, court hearings, defense strategy discussions, sentencing conversations, and news coverage of resolved criminal cases. It often follows arraignment and ongoing evaluation of the prosecution’s evidence.
A defendant charged with several felony counts agrees to plead guilty to one lesser count in exchange for dismissal of the remaining counts and a jointly recommended sentence.
A plea bargain is different from an arraignment, which is the early hearing where charges are presented and a plea is entered formally. It is also different from an indictment, which starts the case as a formal charge rather than resolving it.