“Nearly ninety-five percent of all criminal cases are disposed of by a guilty plea.”
[Please forgive me that I cannot devote the time to your information that it deserves at the moment, because I am embroiled in reams of accounting data etc.]
So I will ask only about the above, in this situation.
At arraignment, one enters a plea.
Did any of those arrested at Twin Peaks enter a plea of other than not-guilty? Is that because they and their lawyers are waiting to see if they are indeed indicted? Then if they are indicted, is that when some of them might enter into plea negotiations?
If one pleas not-guilty in the sense that he considers himself to be not guilty and believes he will not be convicted of a crime, it would make sense to wait and hope there is no indictment.
Negotiation with the DA can happen at any time, all the time.
-- If one pleas not-guilty in the sense that he considers himself to be not guilty and believes he will not be convicted of a crime, it would make sense to wait and hope there is no indictment. --
That depends. Some people who are innocent in fact, truly innocent and wrongly accused, cop a plea because it's the quickest way to get out of jail. Plead guilty, pay a $5,000 fine vs. stay in jail until a trial, which is a crapshoot because juries are the people to stupid to get out of jury duty.