Interesting thing, those who pled “guilty” were fined and given a prison term. All had their property confiscated by the local sheriff.
Those who pled “NOT GUILTY” were tried, convicted and hanged. Property confiscated.
Giles Corey refused to make a plea and was pressed to death. Because he did not make a plea, his property was not confiscated and his family survived intact.
They're still doing that sort of thing these days. Charge you with a crime and give you two options: (1) confess and get a lighter sentence; or (2) go to trial and risk getting the book thrown at you or worse. Which leads me to believe that there are scads of innocent people languishing in prison in the United States. Kind of why I'm not too keen on prison "justice."