Should an innocent person plea bargain to avoid harsher penalty?
Let's say an imaginery man was framed of a murder. Because he was framed, the evidence against him is very strong. The man lives in a conservative place, such as the South, where convictions of murder lead to a death penalty. Or should he keep telling the truth to save himself.
However, his attorney advises him to plea bargain to avoid the death penalty. Should he do it? His life is at risk.
Answers:
There is a terrific article on this topic at
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/...
It talks about many aspects of plea bargains. According to this, the overwhelming majority (about 90%) of all criminal cases end in plea bargains.
The article asks the question of whether plea bargains are good or bad. It concludes that it is good for people who are factually guilty, but coercive for people who are not.
False confessions are also a big problem. Among the 200+ people exonerated with DNA evidence, 25% of the cases involved false confessions and plea bargains. Attempting to avoid a harsher sentence is just one of the things that induce defendents to confess to a crime they did not commit or to take a plea bargain.
For much more about this, you can visit the Innocent Project website, specifically
http://www.innocenceproject.org/understa...
Its an eye opener.
No.
Never. If your innocent never plea bargain...
No...
Well, if I'm a innocent man I'd rather die with my soul intact than spend the rest of life behind bars with real criminals corrupting my soul, so no plea from me.
Don't plea if you didn't do it. Because if evidence comes out later showing that you didn't, if you took a plea, it'll counteract the evidence showing your non-guilt.
If you fight it the whole way, and then find evidence later, people'll be like, "Oh, that's why he fought so hard...he actually didn't do it."
Sometimes the likelihood of an acquittal is slim, even if the accused is innocent. Sometimes the cost of the trial makes it more attractive to plea to a lesser charge (as I once did with a traffic violation).
It's not right, it's not fair, and it's very frustrating, but it's reality.
Unfortunately, this is exactly what most people do. There is no other choice.
Susan S is absolutely correct. Many criminals, including myself, have given false confessions and taken pleas to avoid a jury trial. This involves 12 people, (not my peers), who know nothing of law and they are pissed to be taken from their world and forced to accept the piddly check to listen to this stuff. Some juries will convict just to get it over with. This is BS at it's finest.
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