How can it happen? Our criminal legal system is a negotiation between the state and the accused, not a system based on trial by a jury as peers. The state threatens the maximum sentence as a possible outcome, and then offers a much reduced, but certain outcome.
I'm not deep into Heimlich case in particular, (that means I haven't read any of the links or write-ups of the story) but it did spur me enough to look up facts on plea deals. Here is an excerpt from "Plea and Charge Bargaining" (link attached)...
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (2005), in 2003 there were 75,573 cases disposed of in federal district court by trial or plea. Of these, about 95 percent were disposed of by a guilty plea (Pastore and Maguire, 2003). While there are no exact estimates of the proportion of cases that are resolved through plea bargaining, scholars estimate that about 90 to 95 percent of both federal and state court cases are resolved through this process (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2005; Flanagan and Maguire, 1990).
https://www.bja.gov/Publicatio...gResearchSummary.pdf
Ninety to ninety-five percent. Wow.
Give me 25% of your money, or I may take all of it.