If a person is given the chance of pleading guilty or innocent. Why would someone choose to plead innocent if pleading guilty gives a lesser punishment.
What happens if they plead innocent? Does the case remain open?
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You plead innocent because you or your lawyer believe that there isn’t enough evidence to convict you.
Pleading guilty doesn’t automatically get you a light sentence.
It’s only offered as an option for the prosecution in order to expedite cases of relatively lesser importance (which is still like 95+% of them in the US. Most felonies aren’t like murder)
The prosecution believes that a guilty verdict will be found, but wants to save the time and effort of presenting in court.
Defense will usually take this one. Both sides already know all the evidence that will be presented at this point, and usually know how a cause will go.
Alternatively the prosecution is not sure how the court will rule. The plea deal is then offered to convince someone to plead guilty and guarantee a lesser conviction.
The defence then decides if they want to go to trial and risk a guilty conviction, or take the plea deal.
This is what you usually see in movies because it add drama, but realistically most are the first type where the state prosecutor just wants to minimize the workload on the court system.
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