Imagine that you are wrongly accused of murder. You adamantly proclaim your innocence and consistently deny any involvement in the murder. Although the three witnesses against you are mistaken, they are nevertheless credible because they truly believe that you were the person they saw, and they have no motive to lie about it. As a result, there is a very good chance that you will be convicted after a trial. You are offered a plea deal. If you plead guilty to the lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter, your sentence will be no more than five years. On the other hand, if you insist on going to trial and the jury finds you guilty, you could be sentenced to life in prison. The victim did not have any family, and civil liability is not an issue. Do you maintain your innocence and insist on a trial, or do you accept the plea? Would your answer be any different if you were twenty-five years younger?
I would take my chances. Trial is the only answer if I am innocent. I would have to believe that justice will prevail and even if I am convicted, keep on fighting for my innocence. I can never confess to a crime I did not do. It would not be easy, but that is life!
Unfortunately their are a lot of people right now in jail who have actually lived the above situation. I think I would take the deal to stay alive but you never know until it happens. I pray that I am never in that situation.
I could never confess to a crime I didn't commit. No matter how many people want to say I did it. The reason for that even if I did go for a lesser charge by pleading guilty there would be no forgiveness in society. It would be hard enough even proclaiming my innocence to have those in soceity believing I'm a murderer all becasue that is how I was painted, but if I plead guilty that would be like giving society a free pass to pass judgment on me. So, no I wouldn't plead guilty and I would take my chances in court.
I would plead "Not Guilty". Even if they would put me on death row afterwards, I'd rather die with dignity, because at least I know that I didn't do it, so I would die peacefully.
I like to think that I would insist on my innocence regardless, but it's hard to know sometimes, until you're actually having to make such a decision. Probably, I'd maintain my innocence.