“Plea Bargaining Bill” passed by Parliament
The Bill was passed by the 8th Parliament of the 4th Republic on the 24 June 2022, after intense review by both sides of the house
Parliament has passed the “Plea Bargaining Bill” to amend the Criminal and Other Offences (Procedure Act), 1960 (Act 30).
Sponsored by the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame, the passage of the Bill will see to the formal incorporation of plea bargaining firmly into the administration of justice in Ghana for the first time.
The Bill was passed by the 8th Parliament of the 4th Republic on the 24 June 2022, after intense review by both sides of the house.
By this amendment to the Criminal Procedure Act, plea bargaining will be permissible in all cases except a few which have been set out in the Bill passed by Parliament.
Plea bargaining is a process in criminal justice prevailing in other jurisdictions, where an accused person relinquishes the right to go to full trial in exchange for some other benefit.
The benefits of plea bargaining to an accused may include a reduction of the offence charged to a lesser offence, a reduction in punishment for an offence charged or a withdrawal of some of the charges against the accused person.
While plea bargaining may result in the withdrawal of charges entirely in exchange for a promise to assist in the prosecution of others, most plea bargains end in a conviction either for one or more of the offences charged or for a lesser offence of which the accused could have been convicted at a trial.
For the State, the benefits of plea bargaining, as explained by the Attorney-General to Parliament before the second reading of the Bill earlier in March this year, include a reduction in the caseloads of the courts and of prosecutors, saving the State time and money through avoiding long and protracted trials, decongestion of the prisons due to reduced sentencing, aiding in the reform of accused persons and the satisfaction of victims of offences through compensation and restitution in addition to the punishment of the accused.
Even though some form of very limited opportunities in respect of very few offences existed for plea bargaining, this is the very first-time plea bargaining is formally introduced into Ghana’s criminal justice in respect of all offences, except a few that have been spelt out in the amendment to the Criminal Procedure Code passed by Parliament last Friday.
The exceptions relate to high treason, high crime as created by article 2 of the Constitution, violent offences like rape, defilement, genocide, robbery, kidnapping, murder, attempted murder, abduction, piracy, hijacking and offences related to public elections.
Arguing in favour of the adoption of exceptions by Parliament, and against the motion by the Minority’s ranking member on Constitutional and Legal Affairs, Bernard Ahiafor, for plea bargaining to apply to all offences, the Attorney-General, Godfred Dame, submitted that the Bill was the product of extensive stakeholder consultations and engagements with various practitioners and scholars in the legal profession.
The generality of views expressed support for the position that plea bargaining ought not to be applicable en bloc to all offences without any reservations whatsoever.
Mr Dame noted that “the nation would be formally experiencing plea bargaining duly incorporated into the criminal procedure of the country for the first time”.
In his view, “it was wise for the experiment with plea bargaining to be done in a graduated form, and for plea negotiations not to be permissible in all cases at this time”.
“Parliament ought to create exceptions for a few categories of offences whose perpetration holds a certain level of revulsion on the part of society” the Attorney General said.
Mr Dame submitted that the decision to exclude certain classes of offences from plea bargaining must be backed by strong policy considerations.
Citing examples from jurisdictions where exceptions exist to plea negotiations like India, Kenya and the State of California in the United States of America, he noted that the interest of the State and the need to protect the vulnerable in society have always been paramount.
“It is good to be liberal, Mr. Speaker, but we cannot be overly liberal, especially as we are having our maiden experiment with the concept”, the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice said.
After extensive deliberations, Parliament voted in favour of the Attorney-General’s view to adopt a few exceptions to plea bargaining.
The Majority Leader, Hon. Osei Kyei Mensa-Bonsu, also moved for a further exception to plea bargaining, in the form of high crime, to be adopted by Parliament.
This motion was also accepted. The Bill awaits Presidential assent before it becomes law.
Click on the link below to read the Bill
Ghana’s Plea Bill passed by Parliament
Wilberforce Asare
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