The Post
Less than 2% of these defendants chose to go to trial, and of that group, less than 1 in 5 were eventually acquitted. These statistics are similar for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, where Trump’s trial would be held, Pew found. Over the same yearlong period, more than 86% of defendants in the Florida district pleaded guilty, and about 0.6% of defendants were acquitted at trial.
One reason plea deals are more favorable, Meyer said, is that a defendant typically accepts responsibility for at least some of their charged crimes, and that plays into the sentence as a “mitigating factor.”” such as a history of repeat offenses or mandatory minimum sentences can come into play if defendants go to trial rather than pleading out.