DPP unveils new plea bargaining guidelines

The Director of Public Prosecutions has issued guidelines for prosecutors to follow while using the quick disposal process also known as plea bargaining.

The guidelines are aimed at eliminating disparities in sentences handed to accused persons who have committed similar crimes; ensure that decisions reached when disposing of cases through plea bargaining are credible, transparent and uniform.

The Director of Public Prosecutions, Ms Jane Frances Abodo, on Tuesday said: “There is still limited awareness of the procedure of the plea bargaining by judicial officers, prosecutors, the accused and the general public. In several instances, sentences in plea bargaining are entirely discretionary, overly lenient and bear limited relationship to the judicial sentencing guidelines which leads to abuse by the justice actors.” 

Ms Abodo said while “the practice and procedure of plea bargaining in the criminal justice system in Uganda is still evolving” it ought to be strengthened to attain what she described as “efficiency in the administration of criminal justice.” 

Under plea bargaining, an innovation by the Judiciary that is intended to reduce the case backlog, the accused person voluntarily pleads guilty to the charges in exchange for a lenient sentence. For instance, if an accused person is facing a murder charge, a plea bargain could reduce their sentence to a 10-year jail term instead of a life sentence or even a death sentence. Plea bargains are held out as win-win situations because victims also access quick and speedy justice.

The 88-paged prosecutor’s handbook on guidelines is broken down into eight segments. Some of the objectives of the guidelines are to outline the principles of plea bargaining, prevent abuse of the process, obtain consistency and uniformity in the process, promote participation of the victim, human rights-based approach and gender sensitivity in the process.

Principal Judge Flavian Zeija  has welcomed the guidelines saying they will address the widespread disparities in sentencing suspects for the same offences.

“We have been having challenges in the negotiations for the sentences. You would find someone has been handed three years for murder. Surely, only three years for murder, what will the victims think of us. Do you think they can trust in our justice system again?” he asked rhetorically.

The deputy DPP, Mr Charles Elem-Ogwal, said since its launch in 2014, plea bargaining has helped them clear the heavy case backlog and decongest prisons.

“In our semi-annual report 2020/2021, we reported an increasing trend of plea bargaining sessions in magistrate courts especially. Since the onset of Covid-19, the cases were dis-aggregated into two categories with the High Court having concluded 1,052 cases and magistrate courts with 970 cases; two quarters therefore, making a total of 2,050 convictions in the former financial year,” Mr Elem revealed.

He added: “For once in history, we have more prisoners serving their sentences than those waiting for trial. From the above statistics, it is clear that plea bargaining is a good initiative and only requires strengthening.”

The DPP revealed that during the Covid-19 lockdown, they were able to handle more than 5,000 cases by way of plea bargaining. This, she said, reduced anxiety among the inmates since they were stuck in prison without any court activity brought about by Covid-19.

Dr Benson Okech, who represented the UN Women, welcomed the guidelines but challenged prosecutors to ensure that women and girls, who are victims of gender-based violence, benefit from them.