Why Teens Plea Guilty to Crimes They Didn’t Commit

n 1978, 18-year-old Roy Watford confronted a fateful decision. No, it wasn’t which college to attend—it was whether to plead guilty, while believing himself innocent, to the charge of raping a 12-year-old girl. His grandfather the  in January. “I was raised by my grandmother and grandfather and was never told anything wrong by them, so I listened to them.”