Darwinism and eugenics: Why don't you just admit it and get past it?

The problem is beautifully illustrated by an old joke about the drunken sailor who punches out the plate glass window in a tavern and, in Police Chief Paddy O'Reilly's Night Court in Toronto, pleads "innocent with extenuating circumstances":

PC O'Reilly: (yawns) You cannot plead innocent with extenuating circumstances. You can only plead GUILTY with extenuating circumstances.

If you are innocent, you need say nothing more. If you are guilty, you may plead extenuating circumstances [= pissed out of your mind?] You wouldn't be the first, believe me.

Clerk, I direct you to enter a plea of INNOCENT - but DETAINED, until the case can be more fully examined. And ensure that this man has legal counsel.

Constable, take him down to the cells to sober up and have a shower ...