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Comment by macintux

16 days ago

https://www.npr.org/2023/02/22/1158356619/plea-bargains-crim...

Accepting plea bargains, even when innocent, to avoid the huge expense of defending yourself is the norm.

7 comments

macintux

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assimpleaspossi  16 days ago

Admitting to guilt, even when innocent, is not normal behavior among a normal population. As evidence, the topic of this thread, and probably you and me, and not some unknown elements in a story by NPR.

  • macintux  16 days ago

    > Aside from the paltry number of trials in the federal system, states including Pennsylvania, Texas and New York have trial rates of less than 3%. In Santa Cruz County, Ariz., there were no trials from 2010 to 2012, the report said.

    The numbers are damning. It's simply not possible that police & district attorneys are good enough at their jobs to identify the correct perpetrator with >97% accuracy. Or 100% accuracy in Santa Cruz County.

  • Ensorceled  16 days ago

    This is naive.

    You are arrested for a crime you didn't commit. The prosecution charges you with a serious crime with punishment of years in prison. Your lawyer can't guarantee you'll be found not guilty and you'll be in jail for a least a year until the trial because you can't make bail. The DA then offers a plea bargain to a lessor crime with several months in prison.

    Lots of innocent people would, and do, plead guilty to the lessor crime.

    • assimpleaspossi  15 days ago

      Talk about naive. The vast majority of innocent people would never plead guilty to a crime they didn't commit. Don't apply such things to normal people with better intelligence.

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