Reasons why defendants plead guilty

Why Defendants Plead Guilty To Crimes They Didn’t Commit
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Regina Kelly hails from Hearne, Texas. She was arrested under the allegations that she was found in a drug sweep. She, however, stood up to John Paschall, who was then Robertson County District Attorney. The fact that she was able to defend herself is a source of inspiration to many.
Her arrest was as a result of a confidential informant who was paid to at least get 20 individuals following an issue federal grant for drug execution and that there was the need for arrests. Thus, the informant simply pointed out 28 people, in which nearly all of them inhabited near Kelly’s housing project (Regina Kelly: Drug War Victim – Video Dailymotion, 2018). The informant, who was known to be mentally unstable is said to have mixed water and baking powder to make what looked like cocaine which was to be used as evidence. In one of the cases he fabricated, the victim was at the hospital which was contrary to the stated time he is said to have been selling drugs.Regina is fortunate to have had a supportive family that worked tirelessly to have out on bail. Unfortunately, her cellmate pleaded guilty to a crime she did not commit since she did not have anyone to bail her out. She pleaded guilty so that she could reduce her sentence and reduce her suffering in prison. Regina remained firm to her decision of not pleading guilty to a crime she did not commit and no one could convince her otherwise, not even her lawyer.

Eventually, all the cases that were recorded by the confidential informant were looked into again. It was found that all were lies and all the cases that had been freshly opened were dismissed, including Kelly’s. Unfortunately, those who had already pleaded guilty were unlucky. This is because the way the criminal justice structure works is that their pleas bonded them to the crime unless proven otherwise by strong evidence (Regina Kelly: Drug War Victim – Video Dailymotion, 2018).
In most cases, the public defenders advice their clients to plead guilty so as to lessen the sentence they are likely to get. This takes place without them making any initiative of conducting a serious investigation. At the same time, without a representation in a family court, a defendant’s children in most cases get absorbed into children homes among others. Regina’s extraordinary strength to fight became her savior.
This highlights the reasons as to why one would opt to plead guilty rather than innocent. Regina’s story paints pictures that in a plea-based criminal justice structure, situation s are of less importance as compared to facts. In that, her lawyer was under-resourced, over-burdened while on the other hand, the prosecutor lacked a checked power and no mandate to make arrests. With all these deficiencies, an innocent defendant gets threatened with many years of imprisonment, jail suffering, and that taking a plea is the smarter thing to do despite being innocent.
This bring to light that most people would prefer pleading guilty, not because they are guilty of the charges imposed on them, rather, they make a calculation of what they are willing to risk. It psychologically demoralizes one’s spirit, at the thought of fighting back and ends up losing it all. Under conditions such as stress, anxiety and exhaustion people end up confessing to crimes they did not commit.
References
Regina Kelly: Drug War Victim – Video Dailymotion. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2y0ge4