Hunter Biden plea. So you know:
An “Alford” plea is a plea where the defendant concedes that the govt has sufficient proof for conviction by a jury but still maintains that he is actually innocent.
The federal prosecutors almost never agree to an Alford plea in a plea deal.
An “Alford” plea is a plea where the defendant concedes that the govt has sufficient proof for conviction by a jury but still maintains that he is actually innocent.
The federal prosecutors almost never agree to an Alford plea in a plea deal.
Technically, as the defense you can ask the court to accept an Alford plea w/o the govt’s agreement.
99.9999999% of the time, the court will not accept an Alford plea w/o the govt agreeing.
99.9999999% of the time, the court will not accept an Alford plea w/o the govt agreeing.
This is because these pleas breed claims by the defendant later that he was lied to or coerced or promised something in exchange & he didn’t really want/mean to plead guilty& so he tries to get out of the plea.
Because with an Alford plea, the defendant gets all the same treatment for sentencing and the legal consequences of a conviction as with a regular guilty plea. You just avoid the trial & having to admit that you yourself agree that you’re guilty.
Interestingly, you could get the exact same practical result many times by just pleading guilty to the entire indictment - you avoid the trial and the sentencing is the same. But you do have to personally admit guilt.
@wittmer0313 The Rules technically allow a nolo contendre plea, however. It’s in Rule 12.
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