These are the grim statistics: if you are indicted, you have a 99% chance of seeing prison.
96% of all criminal cases are settled with plea deals.
1% of those that go to trial end in an acquittal.
My question is: is anyone right 99% of the time? (The actual statistic is 99.6%) Are prosecutors really right that often? If so, why is there so much inconsistent, illogical, and flat-out wrongness everywhere else in government?
Amazing. Scary. Cara, you have a source for this?
Shouldn’t we feel comforted to know that the government really doesn’t take you to trial without believing they can make the case? It seems as if there is a very small number of meritless prosecutions. Of course one wrongful prosecution is too many.
Granted, they can still put people through hell even before the grand jury process, as with the Duke lacrosse team.