I'm not sure 'we do it to black and poor people all the time' makes it any better. If the fact it has happened to someone else raises the profile of the issue

I'm not sure 'we do it to black and poor people all the time' makes it any better. If the fact it has happened to someone else raises the profile of the issue that should be a good thing to come out of a bad situation. From the outside (the UK) it seems like the US plea bargain system has become a cause of miscarriages of justice is some cases. The fact that the rational choice for an innocent person can often be to accept a guilty plea is something that should be of real concern. The system of bargaining combined with the ability to charge multiple counts for tightly related acts means the threat side can be very large even where the real levels of wrongdoing are small or illegality borderline.