> there is very little, if any, wiggle room to say no. It is an order not a request. In practice this is always enforced by a punishment, making it functionall

> there is very little, if any, wiggle room to say no. It is an order not a request. In practice this is always enforced by a punishment, making it functionally indistinguishable from the first case. Again, the only difference is semantics. > I see [plea deals] being different Then the semantics are doing their intended job: same official use of coercive force, now with better marketing. > Such systems tend to be barbaric often extracting admissions of guilt via torture. Let's not muddy the waters. We all agree torture is bad (both when it's done in the USA and elsewhere), but your issue was with the appropriateness of the word "forced" to describe coercive plea deals.