Can you think of any other trial, in history, when a defendant pled guilty to a felony charge, including requiring high leverage testimony, when they knew the case was against themselves was weak?
This is the way “justice” is meted out in this country. Do you think the J6 political prisoners deserve the sentences they receive, especially compared to how the Antifa and BLM rioters were treated.
Most cases in this country don’t even go to trial. Plea bargaining is the way cases are resolved. Public defenders are not working in the best interests of the accused.
Plea bargaining is prevalent for practical reasons.
Defendants can avoid the time and cost of defending themselves at trial, the risk of harsher punishment, and the publicity a trial could involve.
The prosecution saves the time and expense of a lengthy trial.
Both sides are spared the uncertainty of going to trial.
The court system is saved the burden of conducting a trial on every crime charged.
https://www.npr.org/2023/02/22/1158356619/plea-bargains-criminal-cases-justice
The vast majority of criminal cases end in plea bargains, a new report finds
In any given year, 98% of criminal cases in the federal courts end with a plea bargain — a practice that prizes efficiency over fairness and innocence, according to a new report from the American Bar Association.
A task force that includes prosecutors, judges, defense attorneys and academics cited “substantial evidence” that innocent people are coerced into guilty pleas because of the power prosecutors hold over them, including the prospect of decades-long mandatory minimum sentences.
“Trials have become rare legal artifacts in most U.S. jurisdictions, and even nonexistent in others,” the ABA Plea Bargain Task Force wrote in a report released Wednesday.