Plea deals, not trials, are how the US criminal legal system runs. In fiscal 2022, 89.5 percent of federal defendants pleaded guilty and only 2.3 percent went to trial, according to Pew Research Center analysis of federal data. State systems show a similar pattern. The Supreme Court upheld plea bargaining in Brady v. United States (1970).
The system pressures people to plead. Prosecutors can stack charges, and mandatory minimums mean a person who goes to trial and loses may face far more time than the offer. Defense lawyers call this gap the trial penalty. People held in jail because they cannot afford bail may plead guilty just to go home.
These pressures can lead innocent people to plead guilty. Because prosecutors make charging and offer decisions largely out of public view, racial disparities in those choices are hard to see and harder to challenge.