put yourself there. feel ill.

imagine you are a poor kid who has to use a public defender cause you can't afford an attorney.  imagine you are accused of a crime that would result in you being a felon and having to register as a sex offender for the rest of you life.  you are only 21 years old.  you know you are innocent (and so does your lawyer), but you also know (and so does your lawyer) that you can't incontrovertably prove your innocence.  your attorney has explained the inherent risks of trial. 

the DA offers you a misdemeanor, and your record can be sealed in 5 years if you stay out of trouble.  do you plead no contest even though you know you didn't do it?  or do you fight as hard as you can?  is it worth the risk?

i know when i was that age what my answer would have been, but i'm curious about the cost benefit analysis that people work through as they consider stuff like this.  what do y'all think?  it's a somewhat useless exercise, in the sense that you can't really know what you would do without the full coercive weight of the state and their "evidence" pressing down on you.