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How does count bargaining work when a defendant faces several charges?
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Plea bargaining
A scene of the trials in Salem Village, Massachusetts Bay Colony, hand-colored engraving.
Count bargaining is a specific type of plea negotiation available to defendants facing multiple charges. In this process, a prosecutor may agree to drop one or more of the pending charges in exchange for the defendantās guilty plea on the remaining counts.1
The charges involved do not need to be identical for this arrangement to occur. By pleading guilty to fewer counts, the defendant typically secures a more favorable outcome, such as a more lenient sentence or the dismissal of the other charges. Because this method is restricted to cases involving multiple offenses, it is considered the least common form of plea bargaining.12