[nroose]

I think the fault is in the whole idea of giving reduced sentence for confessing. I understand that a confession is easier and there should be some incentive to make one, but it seems like the police coerce defendants into making confessions by threatening the longer sentence if there is no confession. While this may result in true confessions sometimes, it also inevitably results in some false confessions. It is just too easy for a prosecutor to make their evidence sound very strong in the absence of a judge and jury to scare the defendant into a confession.

[empressplay]

The sadder thing is that the accused typically has so little faith in the justice system that they'll accept a "deal" rather than take their chances with a judge / jury.

That cynicism translates back into broader society and causes antipathy if not hostility in the general public towards the police. The whole thing creates much more harm than good.