This groundbreaking report by Human Rights Watch explains "how prosecutors throughout the United States extract guilty pleas from federal drug defendants by charging or threatening to charge them with offenses carrying harsh mandatory sentences and by seeking additional mandatory increases to those sentences." The offer for a lower sentence, under the condition of pleading guilty, is undermining the right to due process, especially considering drug defendants rarely prevail at trial. As this report show, it does not come as a surprise that 97 percent of drug offenders accept the guilty plea.
Citation: Jamie Fellner, 'An Offer You Can’t Refuse: How US Federal Prosecutors Force Drug Defendants to Plead', Human Rights Watch (2013)