Lori Loughlin may have the odds stacked against her when she goes to trial for the college admissions scandal.
The setup: Loughlin and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, are accused of paying $500,000 in bribes so their daughters, Olivia Jade and Isabella Rose Giannulli, could be crew team crew for the University of Southern California. The couple pleaded not guilty. All signs point toward the couple trying to clear their name through a trial.
Yes, but: The numbers aren’t on their side.
By the numbers: Here are some numbers that show Loughlin and Giannulli may have a tough time being acquitted, according to Pew Research Center.
- 2% of federal criminal defendants go to trial.
- 90% of criminal defendants pleaded guilty.
- 8% had their cases dismissed.
- 83% of federal criminal defendants who went to trial were convicted in fiscal 2018.
- 17% of defendants who went to trial were acquitted.
- 320 of 79,704 total federal defendants who went to trial won their cases — that’s less than 1% of all federal criminal defendants.
Bench trials: Those who opted for a bench trial fared better than those who went with a jury trial.
- 38% of bench trial defendants were acquitted.
- 14% of those with a jury trial were acquitted
Still: Bench trials are less common.
- 12% of defendants had a bench trial.
- 88% had their cases decided by jury.
History: The United States has seen a decline in the number of federal criminal defendants choosing to go to trial instead of pleading guilty, according to Pew Research Center.
- Pew Research Center: “Trials have been relatively rare in the federal criminal justice system for decades, but they have become even less common over time.”
- 4,710 federal criminal defendants went to trial in 1998.
- 1,879 federal criminal defendants went to trial in 2008.
- That’s a decline of 60%.