Why Plead Guilty If You Are Innocent?

Why do people plead guilty to crimes then profess their innocence? Or, to put it another way, why would someone plead guilty to a crime they did not commit? This curious phenomenon has recently risen to the attention of the American public.

This year several bankers from England plead guilty to a Federal indictment rather than go to trial. All of them received prison sentences. As part of their plea agreement they were permitted to serve their prison sentences in England. Why does this case matter?

Those bankers now claim that they did not commit a crime. According to them, the only reason they plead guilty was to avoid the risk of going to trial and facing a prison sentence in the US. The press in England is paying attention to this case and so should we.

This summer an executive tried to plead guilty to a federal crime that he did not think he committed. He must have been aware that he had very little chance of being acquitted in today's environment. And he surely did not want to risk getting a prison sentence that would have ruined his life. So, he marched into court to plead guilty so he could get a deal from the prosecutors. The judge rejected his plea deal when he admitted that he did not think he committed a crime.

So this man is now going to have to go to trial under circumstances where his chances of prevailing are small, in a system that most fear gives longer sentences to those who go to trial.

The statistics for the percentage of people charged with a federal crime who end up spending time in prison are overwhelming. Over 90% of all people charged with a federal crime end up convicted. Virtually everyone who goes to trial loses. And over 80% of everyone convicted of a federal crime spend time in prison. Those numbers are staggering.

Even more staggering is the risk of lengthy federal prison terms. Whether true or not, the belief is that courts issue higher sentences to those who go to trial rather than accept a plea deal.

Under the federal system, one of the most important factors in determining the length of a prison term is the amount of money involved. In drug cases there are mandatory minimum sentences, usually over 10 years. In cases involving money -- business cases, investment cases, anything involving property -- it doesn't take much money to send sentence lengths soaring. And the requirement of proof beyond a reasonable doubt does not apply when determining the amount of money involved in a crime.

For these reasons, reasonable people will agree to plead guilty to a crime they did not commit. The risks of going to trial, the risk that a court can find that your supposed crime involved substantial amounts of money, are too great.

The bottom line is, if you are charged with a federal crime, you are probably going to go to prison. If you have been charged with a federal crime your first thought should not be whether you are going to go to trial to prove your innocence. And if you are guilty you certainly should not risk going to trial. Your first thought should be how to keep your prison sentence to the absolute minimum. Leave the question of guilt or innocence to the academics. Make sure your sentence is short enough so you can pick up the pieces when you are released.