articleFrom New York Review of Books
Why Innocent People Plead Guilty
A senior federal judge explains why the jury trial has all but vanished: mandatory minimums and charging power let prosecutors offer deals so lopsided that innocent defendants rationally plead guilty; in 2013 more than 97 percent of undismissed federal cases ended in a plea. Rakoff's diagnosis, and his fix of putting magistrates into plea talks, remain the sharpest short case against plea bargaining.
