The Innocent who plead Guilty

In lecture yesterday I discussed a rewrite of The Long Goodbye in which Marlowe would have framed an innocent Eileen Wade, and added that many people plead guilty when they are innocent, for various reasons.  Here's a new piece on the subject from the New York Review of books, which argues that 20,000 people who were wrongly convicted are currently serving time.  The excessive use of plea bargains (95% to 97% of all non-dismissed cases) is a major reason. The photo is of Brian Banks, a Long Beach high school football star who served five years for a crime he didn't commit on advice from his defense attorney.