YES and Yes/No
Yes the USA has plea bargaining/
Plea bargaining saves the country big$$$ by minimizing the cases that go to trial. The problem with plea bargaining comes from the District Attourney Offices (DA). These are lawyers who prosecute. These DAs often view their positions as stepping stones to political office. As a result, many DAs are more concerned about padding their resume's than justice. The best way to pad their resumes is to have high conviction rates. Therefore when people are found NOT GUILTY, this hurts their conviction rates. They also can pad their resumes by prosecuting celebrities.
I knew one fellow who lost his job at 50 and took a telemarketing job at $10/hour to help pay the bills. The company they work for was run by thieves who took people's money but did not deliver the product. Eventually angry consumers called govt agencies and Federal agents raided the premise. This fellow was a 'worker bee' and was not privy to the secret the company was run by thieves. His job was just to phone people. Anyway, he was threatened with 15 years in a Federal prison and he got scared and took a plea bargain to serve about two years. They wanted to charge him with a crime for EVERY PHONE CALL HE MADE.
Anyway, plea bargain convictions do improve the DAs conviction rates.
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