Every year there are hundreds of people that are actually factually innocent that take a plea deal because the pathway to justice is broken. At every level our criminal justice system has been compromised and is now a plea system with no regard for innocence.
Why would an innocent person plead guilty?
About 95% of felony convictions in the United States (and at least as many misdemeanor convictions) are obtained by guilty pleas. According to the National Registry of Exonerations, 15 percent of all exonerees — people convicted of crimes later proved to be innocent — originally pleaded guilty with 66 percent for those exonerated of drug crimes.
So why would an innocent person plead guilty to a crime they did not commit in the first place?
- A legal system that punishes defendants for exercising their rights
- Overreach in prosecutorial power
- Poor legal advice
So many people are accepting plea deals because the justice system is anything but just!
Some legal experts say that plea bargains have become coercive and is used to punish defendants for exercising their right to trial. A recent report by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACD) sums it up:
Guilty pleas have replaced trials for a very simple reason: individuals who choose to exercise their Sixth Amendment right to trial face exponentially higher sentences if they invoke the right to trial and lose. Faced with this choice, individuals almost uniformly surrender the right to trial rather than insist on proof beyond a reasonable doubt, defense lawyers spend most of their time negotiating guilty pleas rather than ensuring that police and the government respect the boundaries of the law including the proof beyond a reasonable doubt standard, and judges dedicate their time to administering plea allocutions rather than evaluating the constitutional and legal aspects of the government’s case and police conduct. Equally important, the public rarely exercises the oversight function envisioned by the Framers and inherent in jury service.
It's important that you know and understand your rights before it's too late. Finding a trusted legal professional to support you is crucial as well.
What many people, undeniably overwhelming majority of black men, are experiencing in the criminal justice system today is a national crisis and we should all treat it as such. Join ERP MOVEMENT and help us be a voice for those entangled in an unjust criminal justice system. As long as these injustices of coerced plea deals and constitutional violations go unchallenged nothing will ever change.