Flutterby™! : Innocent Guilty People

Are Innocent People Pleading Guilty? A New Report Says Yes

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."