zlacker

> No, stick with me here - what if we applied this logic to our justice system? "You're one in 300 million, who cares if you get a fair trial, let alone whether you're guilty?"

Sadly we are applying exactly this approach to our criminal justice system.

90+%[0][1] (94% of convictions at the state level, 97% at the federal level) of cases go through plea bargaining and never reach a courtroom. Trials are often impossible for poor defendants because public defenders can only bring a fraction of their cases to trial.

People like Shanta Sweatt[0] plead guilty because the alternative is to face a much longer potential sentence at trial.

[0] https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/innocen...

[1] https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/prisons-are-packed-bec...