Open Plea and plea Bargain?

Open plea means that you are pleading guilty to whatever it is you agree to plead guilty to and the judge will make the determination of what the sentence will be. In some cases, the State agrees to make no argument and in some cases, the State will argue for what they believe is the appropriate punishment. It is different that a PSI plea in that there is not a presentence investigation and report done for the court's use in sentencing. A plea bargain is when one enters into an agreement with the State for a specific sentence. The judge either agrees and assesses that sentence or rejectst the plea bargain agreement and the person is allowed to withdraw their guilty plea.

There are a couple of types of plea bargains: those that are fully-negotiate and those that are partially-negotiated. A fully negotiated plea might look like "defendant agrees to plead guilty to reduced count 1 (sometimes reduced or amended) in exchange for which will be placed on 2 years of probation, serve 60 days in jail, pay $500 fine, perform 100 hours community service, and undergo substance abuse treatment, dismiss all other counts." All the terms of the plea bargain are hashed out before the defendant agrees to plead guilty. A partially-negotiated plea might look like "defendant agrees to plead guilty to count 1 (usually not reduced, although in your scenario it was) in exchange for which the state promises to not seek a sentence to the penitentiary (at all, or not more than a certain number of years below the maximum), and dismiss all other counts." Under this scenario the only thing certain, if the judge agrees, is that the judge cannot impose a sentence higher than the "cap" agreed to by the prosecution or sentence the defendant for charges dismissed as part of the partial plea agreement . An open plea, also called a blind plea involves no promises and the entire sentence lies in the discretion of the judge.