Statistics about Plea-Bargain

Davit Shalikashvili, Interpresnews

The practice of plea-bargain, which has become one of the most appropriated method of the government in regard with the detainees, was first introduced in the Georgian judiciary in 2004.

“I am pleasantly shocked with the spirit of journalist Giorgi Abdaladze who struggles for freedom and justice; he was ready to protect his personal and professional dignity at the expense of his life but the state machine managed to morally break him with criminal methods. Unless I speak about these illegalities, I will become part of criminal activities of this violator regime. Every lawyer, who will sign illegal agreements and approve the violence, will have to play the same role.  Do not sign the illegal agreement; do not hide the truth and save the photo-reporters from false accusation of espionage; so you will survive your professional honor,” part of Eka Beselia’s appeal, who was lawyer of photo-reporter Giorgi Abdaladze.

Initially, Eka Beselia said Abdaladze requested plea-agreement under oppression. Before that, Abdaladze made a confession statement where he “corrected” the mistakes made in his initial statement.

Another accused of espionage Zurab Kurtsikidze also expressed wish to cooperate with the investigation and to sign plea-agreement. His lawyer Nino Andriashvili withdrew from his defense based on her own decision. After the first meeting with the client, Andriashvili said that Zurab Kurtsikidze was under physical oppression but the detainee did not confirm the allegation; at that moment he did not plead guilty yet.

The third detained photo-reporter Irakli Gedenidze also requested plea-agreement.

The plea-bargain in criminal procedure is a negotiation between the defendant and his attorney on one side and the prosecutor on the other, in which the defendant agrees to plead "guilty" or "no contest" to some crimes, in return for reduction of the severity of the charges, dismissal of some of the charges, the prosecutor's willingness to recommend a particular sentence, or some other benefit to the defendant.

The prosecutor estimates financial compensations that shall be imposed on the defendant. The agreement between the prosecutor and the defendant shall be drawn up and then submitted to the court for approval. The court discusses the agreement conditions and then either accepts or declines it.

The judge shall get convinced that plea-bargain was reached without intimidation, threats, lie and violence. The judge shall also get convinced that the defendant enjoyed qualified legal aid and whether s/he is aware that with plea-bargain s/he refuses to enjoy his/her right to fair trial.

 The statistics about plea-agreements with the defendants in Georgia is the following:

7 358 criminal facts occurred in 2005 and plea-bargain was signed on 932 cases of it.

13 602 criminal facts occurred in 2006 and plea-bargain was reached on 3 791 cases.

17 526 criminal facts occurred in 2007 and plea-bargain was reached on 8 432 cases.

17 639 criminal facts occurred in 2008 and 9 207 of them finished with plea-agreement.

9 459 criminal facts occurred from January to August in 2009 and 5 380 of them finished with plea-agreements. In 2008, 32 760 994 GEL was allocated to the state budget from the plea-agreements during eight months in 2008; in 2010 112 795 907 GEL was paid to the state budget from the same plea-agreements.

This is the currently available statistics about plea-agreements and the sums allocated from them into the state budget. We have data only about two recent years. However, we think it is enough to make some conclusions; moreover, the situation has not significantly changed lately.

Even a dilettante can guess that the allegedly human legal procedure is human only if all branch of the judiciary system works perfectly. If the judiciary is “weak” and the prosecutor’s office is “strong”, the government can easily turn this method into an effective tool to fill in the budget as well to punish unacceptable people and its opponents based on absurd accusations – the accused willfully declines his/her right to enjoy fair trial.

The society doubted about the revenge when the government initially declared the case of photo-reporters Top Secret, then they published confession statements of the detainees and finally their requests on plea-agreements.

Recent events confirmed our doubts.

We can already state without any hesitation that the trials promised by the MIA and Foreign Ministry, where they could introduce the valid evidence against the photo-reporters and after what the journalists would have had to apologize to the MIA, will not be held. The chief prosecutor’s office made a statement after new evidence was published which caused additional doubts of the society.

The prosecutor’s office petitioned to the Tbilisi City Court and requested to pass verdict on the criminal case without essential discussion. They even found the lawyers who were ready to sign the plea-agreement. In short, one more obscure and uninvestigated case was added to the statistics of crimes and plea-bargains.