[Howard Treesong]

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I think this has much more to do with the fact that prosecutors are largely overwhelmed and thus only choose to prosecute cases they think they can win, and plea everything else.

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So, if criminal defendants stopped entering into plea bargains with prosecutors, you think the conviction rate would go WAY down? Why don't more people just take their chances at trial? If a defendant has 10% chance of getting 5 years and a 90% of walking, why would he accept any plea that would give him a criminal conviction on his record for the rest of his life?

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Yes, although your premise is unrealistic. As prosecutors got even busier than they already are, they'd offer better-quality deals to defendants, giving defendants more incentive to accept pleas. Prosecutors would probably get a bit sloppier as they had even less time to prosecute cases that they do try. And it's not possible for criminal defendants to organize in the way you suggest for zillions of reasons. But in theory, I think you're right.

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It just seems like something is really off with the system. The notion that it would be better for 100 guilty men to go free than for 1 innocent man to go to jail seems to have disappeared completely from our court system.

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I don't think there's much of that principle that exists now, if it ever did. And while it's appealing at some level, I'm not sure it's right, given the additional crimes that those 100 free guilty guys are likely to commit.