Prosecutors have found that plea bargains greatly increase their conviction rate. Prosecutors can guarantee a plea by raising the number and seriousness of the charges that they level at a defendant. Defendants are swayed by the cost of a defense and by the realization that conviction at trial on even one of the charges can carry more severe punishment that a plea to a lesser charge. Plea bargaining originated as a way of meting out punishment in a timely way. But as time passed, plea bargaining corrupted the justice system.
Plea bargaining creates a fictional crime in order to avoid going to trial over a real one.
This practice of having people admit to what did not happen in order to avoid charges for what did happen creates a culture that, as it develops, eventually permits prosecutors to bring charges in the absence of crimes. As a little yeast leavens the whole loaf, systematized falsehoods about crimes corrupt the entire criminal justice process. By making the facts of the case malleable, plea bargaining enables prosecutors to supplement weak evidence with psychological pressure. Many innocent people cop a plea just to end their ordeal. Whether the defendant is innocent or guilty, plea bargaining, the demise of the prosecutorial ethic and the erosion of the Rights of Englishmen ensure that wrongful conviction is endemic in the criminal justice system.