Plea Bargain Program Launched in Mbarara.
The Hon. Principal Judge, Hon. Justice Dr. Yorokamu\r\nBamwine on October 6, 2014 launched a\r\nnew Justice program called dubbed "plea bargain”, aimed at tackling over\r\n1000 pending criminal cases that have been in the system for long in Mbarara District. The\r\nprogram is aimed at de-congesting prisons in the country.
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\r\nHon. Justice Dr. Bamwine explained that the situation in prisons is alarming\r\nand that the Judiciary had to look outside its normal operations to find a\r\nsolution to the huge case backlog despite having a very small number of\r\nJudicial Officers.
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\r\nHon. Justice Dr Bamwine further explained that the two Judges attached to Mbarara High Court are not\r\nenough to handle the over 1000 pending criminal cases alongside the civil cases\r\nhence the need for the plea bargain program.
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\r\nPlea bargain is an agreement between the\r\naccused person and the state whereby the accused voluntarily pleads guilty to\r\nthe offense committed in exchange for favors like a lesser sentence.
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For example, if a suspect was facing murder charges that\r\nattract a maximum sentence of death by hanging on conviction, he/she can walk\r\naway with a lesser sentence of life imprisonment after undergoing plea bargain\r\nprocess.
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\r\nProsecutors encourage pleas of guilty under this programme to save time and the\r\nmeager resources and the number of trials that Judges need to oversee.
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Mbarara High Court is the second court in the country to\r\nstart trying out the plea bargaining program in a bid to reduce case backlog\r\nand also de-congest the prisons. The first plea bargain program was successfully rolled out in Kampala under the\r\nNakawa High Court circuit in mid this year with 60.5% convictions secured.
Posted 8th, October 2014
