The Trial Tax: How the US imprisons the Innocent

The Trial tax is a term used to describe a harsher sentence received when going to trial.

It is implied that if a person decides to exercise their right to a trial the court will impose a harsher penalty.

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-10 1. snotraddict commented 6 years ago

Sounds like propaganda from the "no prison" crowd. Taking a plea deal or going to trial is called "playing the odds". Assuming the 120,000 is a good educated guess and not overtly trumped up as these groups often do, it's 0.0004% of the US population. No system is perfect, do we really need to put a lot of effort into such a small percentage?
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+12 2. cameramaster commented 6 years ago

#1. I'd say that depends on whether or not its you that's on trial....and whether or not you believe in justice.
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+5 3. Judge-Jake commented 6 years ago

You know what they say "If you can't do the time, don't do the cr.. oh wait, actually, If you happen to be passing by a crime when it's happening and get wrongly arrested you need to plead guilty and do the time even though you didn't do the crime, oh dam that kinda ruins the rhyme. :(|)
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+1 4. ughlah commented 6 years ago

#1 you are off by the factor 100. it's 0,04%, and it is 6% of al inmates, IF 120000 is a good educated guess.

hollywood teaches us that appointed defenders suck and you have no chance of being found not guilty, if there is a doubt. I honestly have no clue, if that is true, but i can understand that fear, so there is probably some who plead guilty, even though they shouldnt. Even a few cases who dont, but are found guilty.
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+2 5. Edembers commented 6 years ago

Surely it's the plea bargain that attracts a discount, a trial simply attracts the full sentence, isn't it?
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-1 6. sux2bu commented 6 years ago

In most cases the defendant has been charged with multiple infractions of the law such as robbery AND commission of a felony using a weapon. If he goes to trial the prosecutor will try to get convictions on both counts to get the stiffest penalty possible because that is his job.
In a plea bargain some of the charges are dropped or reduced to a lower level so if the defendant is kind of guilty of the crime then the plea IS a bargain. If he is innocent then going to trial is the way to go unless there is evidence that makes him look guilty......then it's a crap shoot whether to chance it or not.