WEBVTT


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Most Americans recognize 

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that their country has a problem 

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with mass incarc3rat!0n.

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The United States makes up just 5% of the world's population,

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but it incarc3rat3s more than 25% of the world's pr!s0ners,

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which amounts to over 2 million people 

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in our ja!1s and pr!s0ns.

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Over 426,000 people in ja!1 in the United States today

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are being detained pretrial,

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which means they are ‼️legally innocent‼️

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Many are ja!13d pretrial 

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simply because 

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they can't afford money bail, 

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or because a probation,

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par0le, 

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or 🧊 office, for example,

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has placed a hold on their release.

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What few appreciate, however,

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is the role that 

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plea bargaining has played

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in transforming

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our cr!m!nal justice system

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into little more 

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than a c0nvict!0n machine.

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Thanks in part to plea bargains,

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millions of Americans 

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have a cr!m!na1 record—

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The number of Americans, in fact,

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with criminal records today is larger 

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than the entire U.S. population in 1900.

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The common narrative

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in popular culture

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is that cr!m!na1 justice is meted out 

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before juries

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in courtrooms around the country—

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In fact, cr!m!nal trials are rare.

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🚨98% of cr!m!nal cases in the federal courts end with a plea bargain,

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an informal and unregulated process

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by which prosecutors

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and defense counsel

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negotiate charging and sentencing concessions

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in exchange for guilty pleas

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*and* waivers of 

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constitutionally guaranteed 

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trial rights.

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That is why 🚨fewer than 1%🚨 

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of federal cr!m!nal defendants 

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were acquitted in 2022.

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That is 290 of 71,954 defendants.

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An “acquittal”

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in that case means a defendant went to trial 

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and was found “not guilty,”

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so you can imagine,

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most people do not.

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In the olden days, the more primitive days,

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t0rtur3 would be employed by state actors

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to coerce an accused person into confessing

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or pointing the finger at someone else—

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⏭️Skip ahead to the 21st century in America,

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and the only thing that has changed

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is the *mechanism* by which coercive pressure is applied

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to induce compliance.

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Instead of piling boulders onto the accused,

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modern prosecutors pile charges

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with the discretionary power 

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to increase your sentence tenfold

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simply for refusing to plead guilty.

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And while t0rtur3 is no longer 

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a permissible method of inducing guilty pleas

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in America's cr!m!nal justice system,

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just about everything else *is*.

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This includes pretrial d3t3ntion for offenses 

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that *DO NOT* warrant it—

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You are being detained before trial 

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✨simply because✨ you cannot pay your bail.

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And for a poor defendant,

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their lack of finances becomes intimately intertwined

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with their liberty

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almost immediately.

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Pretrial d3t3nt!on increases a person's likelihood 

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of pleading guilty by 46%⚠️‼️

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Detained people who may have limited knowledge

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of the cr!m!nal legal system

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and/or who are being detained for the ✨very first time✨

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have strong incentives to cut a quick deal

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in order to resolve their cases as soon as possible,

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*especially* when it involves 

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lower-stakes 

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petty offenses.

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Being in ja!1 prevents you from working,

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making an income, 

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supporting your family,

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taking care of your kids, 

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your pets, 

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etcetera.

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Pretrial d3tenti0n is

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essentially used to coerce you to agree

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to whatever you can

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to be released as soon as possible

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and get back to your life.

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When you are factually innocent,

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a plea deal gives you certainty

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in what can be a long and unpredictable

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cr!m!nal legal process,

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or sidestep the possibility 

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of harsher punishment

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‼️simply because you want to go to trial.‼️

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As one law professor put it,

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quote, 

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“Our existing legal system places the risk of going to trial,”

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“and in some cases, even being charged with a cr!m3,”

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“so high, that innocence and guilt”

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“no longer become the real considerations.”

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Nevertheless, the odds of receiving a plea offer that 

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⛔️includes !ncarc3rat!0n⛔️

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are almost 70% greater for B1ack people than wh!te people.

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While many Americans may believe 

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they themselves will never face a cr!m!na1 investigation,

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in fact, one in three of you—

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of Americans,

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all Americans in this country,

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will have a cr!m!na1 record at some point in their lives.

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The percentage of innocent people 

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who plead guilty to federal cr!m3s

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in federal court because of extraneous factors

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that have ‼️nothing to do‼️ with their actual guilt or innocence

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is impossible to adequately quantify,

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but even more impossible to ignore…

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…But today we have the privilege to speak with someone who knows all too well

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how these issues impact the lives of real people!!!

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Everyone watching or listening to this episode has the very rare

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and very priceless opportunity to hear from Hannah Bogan,

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a deputy federal public defender

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from the Federal Public Defender's office 

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in Los Angeles.

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Their Office made national headlines 

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earlier this year

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for achieving an 

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unprecedented winning streak 

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against the Trmp administration

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since the DOJ and their U.S. Attorneys 

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began an aggressive

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and politically

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motivated campaign

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to d3ta!n and prosecute protesters,

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immigrants, 

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and dissidents

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in federal court nationwide.

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Those are just a few of Hannah Bogan's clients⚖️

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She is here today on Rebuttal as my colleague,

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my friend,

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my confidant,

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and one of my very early inspirations as a lawyer in this field🫂