{"id":464444,"date":"2018-02-15T02:41:05","date_gmt":"2018-02-15T02:41:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ghana-mma.com\/2018\/02\/15\/adopting-plea-bargaining-will-save-time-resources-kpebu\/"},"modified":"2018-02-15T02:41:05","modified_gmt":"2018-02-15T02:41:05","slug":"adopting-plea-bargaining-will-save-time-resources-kpebu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/02\/15\/adopting-plea-bargaining-will-save-time-resources-kpebu\/","title":{"rendered":"Adopting plea bargaining will save time, resources &#8211; Kpebu"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"medsection1\">\n<!-- End of html generated by this->header() --><\/p>\n<p class=\"floatLeft\">General News of Thursday, 15 February 2018<\/p>\n<p class=\"floatRight\"><strong>Source: <\/strong>Myjoyonline.com <\/p>\n<p>2018-02-15<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-left\">\n<p class=\"article-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/94458374.295.jpg\" alt=\"Martin Kpebu\" title=\"Martin Kpebu\" width=\"295\" height=\"198\" \/><span class=\"image_caption\"><span>Martin Kpebu<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"noPrint\">\n<div id=\"537626303\" style=\"width:300;height:250;margin:0;padding:0\">\n<p>\t\t  <noscript><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"b2ad7fa7fd\" name=\"b2ad7fa7fd\" src=\"http:\/\/ghanaweb-d.openx.net\/w\/1.0\/afr?auid=537626303&amp;cb=151125817929577\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\"><a href=\"\/\/ghanaweb-d.openx.net\/w\/1.0\/rc?cs=b2ad7fa7fd&amp;cb=151125817929577\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/1518662465_644_ai\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/iframe><\/noscript><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"clear:right\"> A private legal practitioner has said it is time the country adopted plea bargaining to save resources going through a full trial.<\/p>\n<p>Martin Kpebu said plea bargaining also means conviction even if the accused person only refunds the monies he or she may have taken from state coffers.<\/p>\n<p>He added convictions come with its own embarrassment, including naming and shaming as well as the possibility of stripping the accused person from holding a public office.<\/p>\n<p>According to him, it is always a useful provision because it allows the prosecutor to allow the accused person to plead to a lower offence or return what they have taken.<\/p>\n<p>Plea bargaining is a good tool used in other countries for criminals who may have committed grave crimes or even a chain of offences.<\/p>\n<p>This is done in the name of saving judicial and prosecutorial time.<\/p>\n<p>During his vetting Tuesday by Parliament\u2019s Appointments Committee, the country&#8217;s foremost Special Prosecutor nominee, Martin Amidu, indicated that his office is likely to use plea bargaining.<\/p>\n<p>He said he may allow corrupt public officials to repay the money they stole from state coffers to avoid jail term.<\/p>\n<p>The former Attorney General said there were offences listed for the Special Prosecutor to work on, general provisions for other offences were also made.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSix of the general offences were misdemeanours, two are felonies and the other two are unclassified,\u201d he stressed adding \u201cthe issue is not about filling Nsawam with people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He argued that since the state must not be made to feed people in prison, the plea bargaining option is a good incentive for those who want to make reparation for the courts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe office must take into consideration the grounds upon which reparation should be considered,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>This comment has widely been criticized as many say it is a leeway for public officials to be corrupt knowing very well they can repay and get away with jail time.<\/p>\n<p>But Martin Kpebu argued the country will be better if judicial time is used well within the limited resource constraints.<\/p>\n<p>He added that the conditions in the country&#8217;s prisons are nothing to write home about and people should not be thrown into jail just for the sake of it.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/content.jwplatform.com\/players\/TCQELaCk-GtVgZhNx.html\" width=\"600\" height=\"350\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"auto\" allowfullscreen=\"\" style=\"position:absolute;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/content.jwplatform.com\/players\/IgajEXMd-GtVgZhNx.html\" width=\"600\" height=\"350\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"auto\" allowfullscreen=\"\" style=\"position:absolute;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/content.jwplatform.com\/players\/sEpSq20m-GtVgZhNx.html\" width=\"600\" height=\"350\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"auto\" allowfullscreen=\"\" style=\"position:absolute;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/content.jwplatform.com\/players\/3QDNxZFp-GtVgZhNx.html\" width=\"600\" height=\"350\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"auto\" allowfullscreen=\"\" style=\"position:absolute;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><!-- uploaded by: 49 updated by: -1 --><\/p>\n<p><!-- Start of html generated by this->footer() -->\n<\/div>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a style=\"display:none\" rel=\"follow\" href=\"http:\/\/megatheme.ir\/\" title=\"\u0642\u0627\u0644\u0628 \u0648\u0631\u062f\u067e\u0631\u0633\">\u0642\u0627\u0644\u0628 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Martin Kpebu said plea bargaining also means conviction even if the accused person only refunds the monies he or she may [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":464445,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-464444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464444\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}