94% of criminal convictions in state court are the result of guilty pleas. It’s 97% in federal court.
Why would 94-97% of criminal defts waive their right to trial and plead guilty?
Understanding the answer to that question is key to diagnosing how broken the system is.
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Why would 94-97% of criminal defts waive their right to trial and plead guilty?
Understanding the answer to that question is key to diagnosing how broken the system is.
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The reality is that prosecutors can put enormous pressure on criminal defendants to plead guilty. Here’s how:
At the beginning of 2020, about 2.2 million people were in jails and prisons in the United States.
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At the beginning of 2020, about 2.2 million people were in jails and prisons in the United States.
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About 550,000 of those prisoners were being held prior to trial—meaning they were being held in jail even though they had not been convicted of anything.
How does that happen, you might wonder?
Typically it happens because poor people are unable to make even modest bail.
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How does that happen, you might wonder?
Typically it happens because poor people are unable to make even modest bail.
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Jailing people prior to trial is a powerful prosecutorial tool to obtain guilty pleas. It can take many months—even years—to get your case to trial. So being denied bail means sitting in jail for an extended time waiting for your day in court to prove your innocence.
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After the defendant spends a few months in jail awaiting trial, a prosecutor can offer the defendant the opportunity to plead guilty to a relatively minor felony charge and be sentenced to time served OR reject the plea and sit in jail for many more months awaiting trial.
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For the poor man who could not make even modest bail, the prospect of many more months in jail awaiting trial could be financially devastating for the defendant and/or his family. And so the defendant faces enormous pressure to take the plea deal.
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Denial of bail, however, is not the factor that creates pressure to plead guilty.
In recent decades, mandatory minimum sentences and increased maximum sentences have become a key tool for obtaining guilty pleas.
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In recent decades, mandatory minimum sentences and increased maximum sentences have become a key tool for obtaining guilty pleas.
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Prosecutors can—and do—threaten to charge a defendant with numerous offenses with mandatory minimums that will run consecutively and generate a grossly unjust total sentence (often life) . . . OR . . .
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the offer the defendant the chance accept a plea deal in which the prosecutor agrees to drop the charge(s) with the mandatory minimum in return for the defendant pleading guilty to some lesser charge with a lower sentence.
Imagine the pressure this creates to plead guilty.
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Imagine the pressure this creates to plead guilty.
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But wait, there’s one more piece to how this works.
While the Constitution guarantees that a defendant who can’t afford an attorney must be provided one by the government, states pay those private attorneys an extremely small amount of money to take those cases.
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While the Constitution guarantees that a defendant who can’t afford an attorney must be provided one by the government, states pay those private attorneys an extremely small amount of money to take those cases.
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In Alabama, an appointed attorney for an indigent criminal defendant is reimbursed only up to a maximum of $4,000 for a serious felony. In New York, it’s $4,400. These small amounts only make sense if not much work is required because the defendant is going to plead guilty.
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A lawyer receiving only $4,000 for a case isn’t going to make a living taking that case to trial, which would require hundreds of hours of work. And so the system puts financial pressure on even the defense lawyer to recommend that the defendant plead guilty.
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Often, however, defendants have no sense of how a guilty plea to even relatively minor felony offenses can have devastating and enduring consequences on their lives—on their employment prospects, on their ability to obtain public assistance, child custody, etc.
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This may not bother you if you assume those who are charged are guilty.
But why would we assume that?
Prosecutors are not omniscient. The constitutional method to determine guilt is a trial. And we know as fact that defts accept guilty pleas even when they are innocent.
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But why would we assume that?
Prosecutors are not omniscient. The constitutional method to determine guilt is a trial. And we know as fact that defts accept guilty pleas even when they are innocent.
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If you doubt that innocent people plead guilty when faced with the type of pressure described, check out this case:
nytimes.com/2021/04/06/nyr…
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nytimes.com/2021/04/06/nyr…
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Police officer made up criminal charges out of thin air and dozens of defendants pled guilty. Why would they do that? Because of the the pressure to accept guilty pleas.
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Is what I am describing here the aberration or the rare case.
I’ll ask this question again: why would 94-97% of defendants waive their right to trial?
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I’ll ask this question again: why would 94-97% of defendants waive their right to trial?
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Still doubting?
Here’s a study showing that, of 2,832 convicts later exonerated, 589 had pled guilty.
Pled guilty to crimes they didn’t commit.
Why would people plead guilty to crimes they did not commit? See above me.
Here’s a study showing that, of 2,832 convicts later exonerated, 589 had pled guilty.
Pled guilty to crimes they didn’t commit.
Why would people plead guilty to crimes they did not commit? See above me.
https://twitter.com/exonerationlist/status/1420487934533382154
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