A fascinating and depressing story shared on Twitter by a US defence lawyer and collated by Fusion, explains how and why a client pleaded guilty to a charge of assault despite having done nothing wrong.

The short answer: because “the time it would take to vindicate ‘innocent until proven guilty’ would leave him unemployed”, tweeted computer scientist turned lawyer T Greg Doucette. And that was about potentially spending a few days in court on two separate occasions.

India may not have a plea bargaining system (where the prosecution can offer deals to the defendant), but just imagine how much longer criminal cases take in India, and how many defendants get shoddy legal advice, and how much time investment is required from the average person accused of a crime, and the repercussions on their job and life this can entail.