Guilty Plea - Law Dictionary Search Results
Home Dictionary Name: guilty pleaguilty plea
guilty plea a criminal defendant's admission to the court that he or she committed the offense he or she is charged with and his or her agreement to waive the right to trial. If the court accepts the plea, the case proceeds to sentencing. Source: Federal Judicial Center ...
nolo contendere
nolo contendere [Latin, I do not wish to contend] : a plea by a defendant in a criminal prosecution that without admitting guilt subjects the defendant to conviction as in the case of a guilty plea but that does not bar denial of the truth of the charges in another proceeding (as a civil action based on the same acts) called also no contest non vult contendere compare guilty, not guilty ...
nolo contendere plea
nolo contendere plea a plea in which the defendant does not admit guilt, but does waive the right to trial and authorize the court to impose punishment at sentencing. Nolo contendere is a Latin term that means "it is not contested." This type of plea is rarely entered. The motivation for entering a nolo plea is that unlike a plea of guilty, a nolo plea may not be used against the defendant as an admission in a related civil case. Source: Federal Judicial Center ...
confession
confession 1 : an act of confessing 2 : an acknowledgment of a fact or allegation as true or proven ;esp : a written or oral statement by an accused party acknowledging the party's guilt (as by admitting commission of a crime) compare admission declaration against interest at declaration, self-incrimination NOTE: Courts differ on how a confession establishes the accused's guilt; for example, in some jurisdictions the confession has to establish all the necessary elements of the crime. In order to be admissible as evidence, a confession must be voluntary. A guilty plea is considered a judicial confession. ...
judicial confession
judicial confession : a confession made in a legal proceeding (as in a trial) [a guilty plea supported by a judicial confession] ...
manifest injustice
manifest injustice : an outcome in a case that is plainly and obviously unjust [acceptance of an involuntary guilty plea constitutes manifest injustice] ...
Arraign
Arraign [fr. arraisonner, aresner, aregnir, arraigner, Old Fr., i.e., ad rationem ponere, Lat., to call one to account], to bring a prisoner to the bar of the Court to answer the matter charged upon him in the indictment. The arraignment of a prisoner consists of calling upon him by name, reading to him the indictment, demanding of him whether he be guilty or not guilty, and entering his plea. The pleas upon arraignment are either the general issue, i.e., not guilty, or a plea in abatement or in bar, or the prisoner may demur to the indictment, or he may confess the fact, upon which the Court proceeds immediately to judgment. But, if the prisoner 'shall stand mute or malice, or will not answer directly to the indictment or information,' the Court, if it shall so think fit, may 'order the proper officer to enter a plea of 'not guilty' on behalf of such a person, and the plea so entered shall have the same force and effect as if the person had so pleaded the same.'-Crim. Law Act,1827 (7 ...
arraign
arraign [Anglo-French arrainer, from Old French araisnier to address, call to account, from a-, prefix stressing goal of an action + raisnier to speak] : to bring (a defendant) before a judge or magistrate to hear the charges and to plead usually either guilty or not guilty compare indict NOTE: For a person to be formally arraigned, he or she must be called by name before a judge or magistrate. The judge or magistrate makes sure that the defendant is the person named in the complaint, indictment, or information, which is then read to formally notify the defendant of the charges. The defendant may then enter a plea of guilty, not guilty, or another plea allowed by law such as nolo contendere. In some cases, as when the defendant is not yet represented by a lawyer, the judge or magistrate may enter a plea of not guilty on the defendant's behalf. ar·raign·ment n ...
Culprit
Culprit. The prisoner at the Bar awaiting his trial after a plea of not guilty. 'Its first recorded use is in the trial of the Earl of Pembroke for murder in 1678. Its original force was formerly to join issue with the defendant's plea of Not guilty and to demand trial and judgment.'-Oxf. Dict., art. 'Culprit,' where see discussion of the disputed derivations of the word. It is thus derived by Donaldson. The clerk asks the prisoner, 'Are you guilty or not guilty ?' Prisoner, 'Not guilty.' Clerk, 'Qu'il paroit [may it prove so]; how will you be tried ?' Prisoner, 'By God and my country.' These words, being hurried over, came to sound, 'Culprit, how will you be tried ?' Blackstone's derivation is entirely different; see 4 Bl. Com. 339....
Not guilty
Not guilty, a plea by way of traverse which occurred in actions of trespass, libel, or other tort, and amounted to a denial only of the breach of duty or wrongful act alleged to have been committed by the defendant; this was called pleading the 'general issue.' See PLEADING.The plea of not guilty, jin criminal proceedings, is the proper form wherever a prisoner means either to deny or justify the charge in the indictment; the effect of which plea is, that on the one hand, it puts the prosecutor to the proof of every material fact alleged in the indictment or information, and on the other it entitles the defendant to avail himself of any defensive circumstances as amply as if he had pleaded them in a specific form....
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