Judge Michael McSpadden has been a criminal court judge in Harris County (Houston), Texas since 1982. In this interview, he talks about the plea bargain's vital role in the criminal justice system and how the plea process works in his courtroom, and he describes his own role as a judge. While he defends pleas, he acknowledges that the vital "human element" is required to guarantee that the system works correctly: "Plea bargaining only works if you have experienced, competent defense attorneys, experienced, competent prosecutors, and a judge who will make sure this is done properly." This interview was conducted on Dec. 16, 2003.

I can either accept or reject any plea bargain. If the plea bargain is made, the court's responsibility during the admonishments or in the litany of warnings -- I make sure that that defendant who is pleading guilty or pleading no contest is doing so in an intelligent, voluntary manner, so that he knows exactly what he's doing.

Oversee it, supervise, and make sure that it's within the bounds of our community, what our community expects that plea bargain to be.

I look at it as a necessary component in our criminal justice system, mainly because the great number of cases we deal with -- If we had an ideal situation, where every case that came in was tried before a jury who speaks for our community, we would be sending these cases for 10 years down the road to be tried. There just aren't enough courts to try these cases before a jury because the of number of cases. …

The public, I'm sure, is suspicious of it. A lot of people call it a necessary evil.