Pleading Guilty to a Crime You Did Not Commit

Here in the United States you're supposed to have a right to a fair trail when accused of a criminal act. However, anybody researching the court system quickly realizes that accused parties seldom receive anything resembling a fair trial. The deck is stacked against them. From the jury selection process, which weeds out anybody with more than two brain cells to rub together, to the false instructions by the judge, which generally consist of telling the jurors that they must base their ruling on the letter of the law, it's tough to get a fair hearing. With that in mind, it shouldn't come as a surprise that innocent people plea guilty:

A new paper published by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) "The Trial Penalty: The Sixth Amendment Right to Trial on the Verge of Extinction and How to Save It." We may not know every amendment to the Constitution, but we all embrace the fact that in the U.S. everyone is entitled to a fair trial by a jury of our peers. However, going to trial can be a gamble with one's life. One conclusion reached by the NACDL was that "There is ample evidence that federal criminal defendants are being coerced to plead guilty because the penalty for exercising their constitutional rights is simply too high to risk."

Oftentimes when an individual is charged with a crime an offer is made to them: if they plead guilty, they'll suffer a far less severe punishment than if they try to fight the charges in court. Faced with such an offer, especially when one recognizes how unfair courts are to accused parties, it's easy to see why so many people choose the plea bargain.