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Guilty Pleas

The New York State Trial Penalty: The Constitutional Right to Trial Under Attack - March 2021

The ‘trial penalty’ refers to the substantial difference between the sentence offered in a plea offer prior to trial versus the sentence a defendant receives after trial. This penalty is now so severe and pervasive that it has virtually eliminated the constitutional right to a trial. To avoid the penalty, accused persons must surrender many other fundamental rights which are essential to a fair justice system. Read More.


The Trial Penalty: The Sixth Amendment Right to Trial on the Verge of Extinction and How to Save It - July 2018

The ‘trial penalty’ refers to the substantial difference between the sentence offered in a plea offer prior to trial versus the sentence a defendant receives after trial. This penalty is now so severe and pervasive that it has virtually eliminated the constitutional right to a trial. To avoid the penalty, accused persons must surrender many other fundamental rights which are essential to a fair justice system. Read More.


Drug Crimes in 2016 - 7 March 2017
This excert from our report on Exonerations in 2016 focuses on drug crimes. All but four of the 61 convictions for drug crimes were the result of guilty pleas. Read more.


Innocents Who Plead Guilty – 24 November 2015
About 95% of felony convictions in the United States are obtained by guilty pleas (and at least as many misdemeanor convictions), but only 15% of known exonerees pled guilty (261/1,702). Innocent defendants who plead guilty have an exceptionally hard time convincing anybody of their innocence. Read more.


Guilty Pleas in Group Exonerations – 24 November 2015
Because group exonerations arise when a group of officers frame defendants, group exonerations include many more guilty pleas and other comparatively low-stake cases than we see among individual exonerations. Read more.


Guilty Pleas and False Confessions – 24 November 2015
People who contact the Registry with questions about false confessions often equate an exoneree’s guilty plea with a false confession. Guilty pleas, in court, and confessions—typically at police precincts—are related but different. As this article reports, “An exoneree who falsely confessed is more than three times more likely to plead guilty to a crime she didn’t commit than an exoneree who did not confess.” Read more.