La conformidad tiende a verse como una institución que ofrece rebajas penales a cambio de agilidad procesal. Sin embargo, no son pocos los supuestos en los que el acusado acepta razonablemente una pena mayor de la que en justicia le correspondería. El artículo pretende detectar y clasificar las razones de esta práctica (evitar el riesgo de una condena injusta mayor, reducir los costes del proceso, evitar costes a terceros), subrayar sus inconvenientes desde la perspectiva de los valores constitucionales, y sugerir alguna estrategia para reducir el número de casos o paliar sus consecuencias para el honor de los conformados.

Palabras Clave. conformidad, presunción de inocencia, Procedimiento penal

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Why innocent people plead guilty?

Plea bargaining and guilty pleas tend to be seen as institutions that offer advantages –usually, milder penalties– in return for procedural agility and speedy adjudication of criminal cases. There are, however, situations in which it appears reasonable for the accused to accept a penalty higher than that which would be fair. This article aims, in the first place, to detect and classify the reasons for this practice (avoiding the risk of a higher and unfair sentence, reducing the costs of the process, avoiding costs to third parties); it is also its purpose to highlight the drawbacks of such cases from the constitutional values’ perspective, and to suggest possible strategies to reduce the number of cases or to mitigate the consequences for the honour of those who plead guilty.

Keywords. plea bargaining and guilty pleas, presumption of innocence, procedure