I do, too :) And I will never understand why just the prospect of facing a "jury of one's peers" isn't enough to keep more folks on the straight and narrow.
"And I will never understand why just the prospect of facing a "jury of one's peers" isn't enough to keep more folks on the straight and narrow."
Nationwide, only about 2.5% of all felony cases ever make it to jury trial. Almost all the rest are resolved by plea bargain, often with prison being part of the plea deal. Facing a jury of one's peers is a frightening prospect. Hardly any criminal defendants want to do it. Even cases where one is innocent of all or part of the charges levied against him, facing a jury is a big roll of the dice that is frightening enough to make a fairly reasonable plea offer seem not so bad, even if taking it means one will have to plead guilty or no contest to things he did not do. In almost every case where plea offers are made the final offers at least will have somewhat of a "plea discount," meaning the defendant will get significantly less punishment than the prosecutor believes he'll be able to get from the judge or jury if the case proceeds to trial. The plea discount in weaker cases is almost always going to be a lot more significant than it would be in an open and shut case, and there is no doubt in my mind that occasionally a completely innocent defendant will take a really "good" offer rather than face a jury. More often than that one who is guilty of some of what he is charged with but not all of it, or who may be overcharged (guilty of a lesser crime but not of the more serious charge filed against him), will go ahead and plead to everything he charged with rather than face a jury. People are afraid of jury trials...but of course that's obviously not enough to stop deviants from deviating from the laws in the first place.