[rahimnathwani]

"Obviously a guilty plea still requires work, and maybe a lot of it. But in terms of outcomes, they rarely lose."

Right, but this is the result of:

1. Selection bias (prosecutors only prosecute a case they have a great chance of winning).

2. Negotiation (prosecutors will charge for lesser crimes than those they believe were committed, in order to gain agreement to a plea deal).

The percentage alone doesn't tell you much about how hard it is to gain a conviction. It tells you a lot about how willing prosecutors are to prosecute a case that they may not be able to win.