Plea agreement during the criminal prosecution of a criminal trial

• Author: Marian Alexandru
• Position: Lecturer, PhD, Faculty of Law and Administrative Sciences, 'Ovidius' University, Constan?a (e-mail: marian.alexandru1961@yahoo.ro).
• Pages: 110-117

LESIJ NO. XXIV, VOL. 2/2017

PLEA AGREEMENT DURING THE CRIMINAL PROSECUTION

OF A CRIMINAL TRIAL

Marian ALEXANDRU

Abstract

The Plea Agreement is one of the latest institutions and one of the special procedures introduced

by the New Romanian Criminal Procedure Code.

The Romanian procedure law adopted it because the State wanted a reduced cost of the justice

action; thus, the courts would have fewer trials and the procedures would be accelerated. This work

wants to analyse the congruity of this procedure with the right to a fair trial.

Keywords: agreement, recognition, guilt, prosecutor, trial.

1. Introduction

The Romanian quick social and

economic development has been constantl y

claiming the need for adj usting the judicial

system to the contemporary reality, for a

good, prompt and efficient justice action.

One of the i mportant institutions

introduced among the special procedures,

regulated by Title 4, Chapter 1 of the Special

Part of the New Criminal Procedure Code, is

represented by the plea agreement.

It is considered special because it is

regulated mainly by some norms, derogatory

from the normal pro cedure, applicable

unitarily in solving criminal cases.

The special derogatory character

draws from aspects concerni ng the limits of

the law court assignment, the object of the

trial, the r ules set for the trial whenever the

instance is informed about such agreement.

Some states have been using this

special practice for a long time now. For

instance, in t he United Kingdom of Great

Britain, the first pieces of evidence of this

 Lecturer, PhD, Faculty of Law and Administrative Sciences, “Ovidius” University, Constanţa (e-mail:

marian.alexandru1961@yahoo.ro).

procedure date since 1743, whereas in the

USA from 1804.

This work wants to stud y the

circumstances of signing this type of

agreement, used only during the criminal

investigating stage.

We are going to analyse the duties of

both the criminal prosecuto r and his

hierarchically superior, and at the same time,

the obligations of the accused person when

accessing this procedure during the criminal

investigation stage of a criminal case.

2. Authors and procedure

initiation

According to art 478 paragraph (1)

Criminal Procedure Code, the defendant and

the prosecutor are the authors of the plea

agreement.

This document can be signed either by

the prosecutor who investigates the criminal

case, according to ar t. 56 paragraph (3)

Criminal Procedure Code, or the prosecutor