Alvin Kamara pleads no contest to lesser misdemeanor charge, jury trial is cancelled; civil suit also settled on confidential terms

People will jump to the conclusion that this is a rich guy who got a plea deal that most people can't. The evidence, however, is that the vast majority of criminal charges are settled by a plea bargain where the defendant takes a lesser charge or a lesser sentence. It's completely unsubstantiated cynicism to say that's why Kamara got this deal.

Prosecutors take plea deals because trials are expensive and risky, and DA staffs are short and resources are limited. In Kamara's case, he was charged with battery resulting in serious injury and conspiracy to commit battery. Both of those charges have their challenges: the first charge requires the state prove the defendant's blows (as opposed to someone else's) caused the serious injury, and the conspiracy charge requires the state prove it was all planned ahead of time. Yes, there may be evidence of those charges but they also have their challenges that make trying the case risky. Especially if the victim consents (perhaps the $100K for medicals while still having a civil action pending) it makes it even easier for the prosecution to elect to plead it down. In other examples, the prosecutors use coercion and other forms of pressure to get defendants to take deals when perhaps they might not need to, or they're actually innocent. Either way, the result is almost always a plea deal.

But for some data: nationwide it appears that criminal charges are settled with a lesser plea in more than 95% of cases, and likely even higher. It is 98% in the federal system, and in excess of 97% in large states such as Texas, New York, and Pennsylvania. (See below).

The plea bargain rate in Nevada is at least 90% per a quick search, and likely higher than that.



https://www.npr.org/2023/02/22/1158356619/plea-bargains-criminal-cases-justicehttps://thedefenders.net/blogs/plea...argains are a common,rather than go to trial.