plea-bargain

• plea bargain, pleabargain

plea-bargain (plural plea-bargains)

1. (US, law) Alternative form of plea bargain (“an agreement between a defendant and the prosecution in which the defendant agrees to a plea such as guilty or nolo contendere to a lesser charge rather than contesting a greater charge”).

plea-bargain (third-person singular simple present plea-bargains, present participle plea-bargaining, simple past and past participle plea-bargained)

1. (US, law) To make an agreement in which a defendant agrees to plead guilty to a lesser charge instead of not guilty to a greater one.
   • 1979 April 28, Tom Reeves, “Revere Sex Cases Resolved”, in Gay Community News, page 1:

     […] former District Attorney, Butters said " […] I think the fact that some many plead guilty proves that these cases should have been prosecuted." One of those who plea-bargained disagrees. Ed Mede last week pleaded guilty to one count of sex with a minor under 16. "This does not prove my gilt ^[sic]," he insists. "It proves the injustice of the whole system. I could not go on paying for my attorney through a long trial. […] I did not want to face life in prison because of the whim of a biased judge or juror."

• plea-bargain on Wikipedia.Wikipedia