To plead or not to plead? That is the question for hundreds of Capitol riot defendants
Hundreds of people charged with storming the U.S. Capitol three years ago have had a powerful incentive to plead guilty rather than go to trial. An Associated Press review of over 1,200 cases arising from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack found that the average prison sentence for a Capitol riot defendant convicted of a felony after a trial is roughly four years and three months. That's roughly two years longer than the average sentence for those who pleaded guilty to a felony. Defendants who plead guilty typically receive some leniency for accepting responsibility. But lawyers for some Jan. 6 defendants who went to trial have complained about what has long been described as a “trial tax.”