Judge Hargreaves is telling it like it is.  Judges are charged with being fair, rational, and impartial.  District attorneys are charged with and rewarded for the most convictions/guilty pleas they can obtain.  Stripping judges of sentencing discretion placed enormous power in the hands of district attorney's which they typically use to force guilty pleas.  The media virtually never presents interviews with those who are forced to take a plea bargain so that we the public rarely get a perspective of what's actually going on.  In fact, the media typically reports guilty pleas with no discussion of the plea bargain involved.  Since DA's control the charge, they control the sentence.  For simple actions, the DA will level maybe ten charges.  Total sentence if convicted by a jury would typically be life.  Thus the dude must plead guilty when the DA offers to reduce charges regardless of true guilt because his defense attorney will tell him juries favor the DA.