plea agreement

A negotiated resolution between a defendant and a prosecutor in which the defendant agrees to plead guilty to one or more criminal charges, often reduced from the original charges, in exchange for a lighter sentence recommendation or the dismissal of other counts. Plea agreements must be approved by a judge and constitute the defendant’s formal admission of guilt to the agreed charges. A plea agreement is not a finding of factual innocence on dismissed counts; it is a procedural resolution. Cooperation agreements, a subtype of plea agreement, additionally require the defendant to testify truthfully against other defendants in exchange for prosecutorial leniency.