Why would someone plead guilty to a crime he or she didn’t commit? Criminal defendants in the United States are constitutionally entitled to a jury trial. And yet guilty pleas, rather than jury trials, are the norm in the American justice system. Roughly 95 percent of criminal cases are resolved through guilty pleas. The reason that innocent people plead guilty is because our system, as currently structured, pressures everyone into pleading guilty.

Even if this practice may be legal and widely accepted, is it just?