I freely admit that I’m out of touch with modern rap music. I’ve heard of A$ap Rocky, but I couldn’t name a single one of his songs even if you put a gun to my head. The main thing I know is that he’s Rihanna’s baby daddy. I’d heard he’d been arrested for something a few years ago, but I didn’t pay attention to the news about it because I really don’t care, so I didn’t and still don’t know all of the details of what he’s accused of. But this recent bit caught my attention, as the trial is about to begin.

If convicted of all charges, A$ap Rocky faces 10 to 24 years in prison. The prosecution offered him a plea deal of 180 days in county jail, three years of probation, a seven-year suspended prison sentence, 480 hours of community service, and a 52-week anger management program. But A$ap Rocky rejected it and will go on trial instead.

This, of course, blew everyone’s minds. The reactions I saw online from fans and legal experts alike were pretty much unanimous in the belief that A$ap Rocky is making a huge mistake and should have taken this plea deal. I saw a clip on Tiktok of the judge speaking to him in court, making it clear to him that if he goes to trial and gets convicted, he will “very likely” get a “significant prison sentence” and that his celebrity status will not benefit him. But A$ap Rocky stood firm.

I have to say that if I were in his shoes, I’m sure I’d have taken the plea, and I don’t have anywhere near what A$ap Rocky stands to lose. I would not want to trade my boring life for prison, and I damn sure wouldn’t want to trade the life of a rap star living with Rihanna and two young children for prison. But at the same time, I admire him. If he really believes that he’s innocent, why should he confess to a crime he didn’t commit?

But, as also, in principle, I’ve always hated this type of thing, what I consider to be prosecutorial over-charging. I know this practice exists; prosecutors don’t necessarily care about true justice; they just want to get convictions because that looks good on their records, and they can save a lot of time and money if they don’t have to go to trial. It’s much easier if they can get the defendant to plea so they can just close the case. I’ve heard a repeated statistic that the federal government has a 95% conviction rate, which sounds extremely impressive. But then I looked into it and found out that this is because only about 2% of Federal criminal court cases actually make it to trial. 8% tend to get dismissed for various reasons, and the remaining 90% take plea deals.

It feels like a rigged system to me. They want to force you to take a plea, so they over-charge you in the hope of scaring you into taking it. Is that always fair, though? Just looking at A$ap Rocky’s case, think about it: if they truly believe that he’s guilty of something that is worthy of up to 24 years in jail, then wouldn’t it be a huge miscarriage of justice to let him only serve 180 days in jail? It’s B.S.

So, this plea deal offer is enough for me to root for his victory.