California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. King, 266 Cal.Rptr.3d 571, 52 Cal.App.5th 783 (Cal. App. 2020):
plea other than as specified in the plea. " "While no bargain or agreement can divest the court of the sentencing discretion it inherently possesses [citation], a judge who has accepted a plea bargain is bound to impose a sentence within the limits of that bargain. [Citation.] A plea agreement is, in essence, a contract between the defendant and the prosecutor to which the court consents to be bound. [Citations.] Should the court consider the plea bargain to be unacceptable, its remedy is to reject it, not to violate it, directly or indirectly. [Citation.] Once the court has accepted the terms of the negotiated plea, [it] lacks jurisdiction to alter the terms of a plea bargain so that it becomes more favorable to a defendant unless, of course, the parties agree. " " ( People v. Stamps (2020) 9 Cal.5th 685, 701, 467 P.3d 168 ( Stamps ).)
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