The thread of learning something new every day
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in the US (most states) in addition to pleading Guilty or Not Guilty, there is also the Alford Plea (AKA a Kennedy Plea) which is where you admit the evidence you are faced with is such that you are likely to be found guilty, but you are not pleading guilty.
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@taniwharugby said in The thread of learning something new every day:
in the US (most states) in addition to pleading Guilty or Not Guilty, there is also the Alford Plea (AKA a Kennedy Plea) which is where you admit the evidence you are faced with is such that you are likely to be found guilty, but you are not pleading guilty.
Isn't that the one that lawyers use when fighting an unwinnable case (even if the defendant is adamant of innocence) so that they can get a plea bargain, save everyone time and money and move on?
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@Crucial think it is different to a plea bargain too, usually a plea bargain is still pleading guilty to take death penalty off table or reduced sentence (well that is how it is portrayed in the movies and TV
so must be true) -
@taniwharugby said in The thread of learning something new every day:
@Crucial think it is different to a plea bargain too, usually a plea bargain is still pleading guilty to take death penalty or reduced sentence (well that is how it is portrayed in the movies and TV
so must be true)I remember now. This was what the 'West Memphis 3' used to get out of jail.
If they fought their convictions further they could have been found guilty again but by taking the Alford Plea they were able to negotiate time served as sufficient and be free -
It can be folded into a plea agreement as it essentially functions as a guilty plea where the accused still maintains their actual innocence:
The Alford Plea originated from a first-degree murder case in North Carolina in 1963, which was appealed to the Supreme Court. (North Carolina v. Alford, 400 U.S. 25 (1970)). Evidence included testimony that Henry Alford took his gun, proclaimed that he was going to kill the victim and went to the victim's home, where they argued. Mr. Alford left the home, and soon thereafter, the victim was shot when answering a knock at the door.
If convicted of the crime, Alford would have suffered North Carolina's then default sentence of capital punishment. Despite the evidence against him, Mr. Alford insisted he was innocent and plead guilty to second-degree murder. He was sentenced to thirty years in prison and appealed his case to federal court where he argued that he was coerced into the guilty plea to avoid death and requested a new trial. The 4th Circuit Court ruled that the plea was involuntary because it was motivated by fear of death, therefore, the trial court should have rejected his plea.
On appeal, the Supreme Court of the United States held that there were no constitutional barriers to accepting a guilty plea despite protests of innocence so long as the defendant is competently represented by counsel, the plea is intelligently chosen and the record before the judge contains strong evidence of actual guilt. Today, when Alford Pleas are accepted, trial judges have discretion as to whether to accept the plea.
Further to this, if you use the plea, you then have to accept the conditions of a guilty plea:
In an opinion filed this week in the South Carolina Supreme Court (Opinion No. 27250), we see the benefits and the pitfalls of a defendant pleading guilty in an “Alford” plea. For those who are not familiar with what that is, basically it is a plea bargain where the defendant’s position is that he wants to take the plea bargain, but still maintain his innocence.
He was convicted of assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature, and sentenced to ten years, suspended to five years probation, which included a provision that he successfully complete sex abuse counseling. If he failed to comply with probation, he would have to register as a sex offender for life if he did not successfully complete the counseling.
Mr. Herndon began the sex abuse counseling. This counseling required that he admit the abuse he committed on the victim and submit to three polygraph examinations about the abuse. Herndon actually did do two of the polygraph examinations, but refused to do the third one, saying he did not want to admit guilt because he had not been convicted of a sex offense.
Herndon was given a probation citation and ... brought back to court, where he argued that he was not given adequate notice that he would have to admit guilt as part of his counseling. The court ordered that he register as a sex offender for life and he appealed. The crux of the issue here is that Herndon felt that with an Alford plea, he was able to maintain innocence. As the court stated, “The primary thrust of the Alford decision is that a defendant may voluntarily and knowingly consent to the imposition of a prison sentence even if he is unwilling or unable to admit he participated in the acts constituting the crime.” United States v. Morrow, 914 F.2d 608, 611 (4th Cir. 1990). In this case, the court reasoned, “the Alford plea does not create a special category of defendant exempt from the punishment applicable to her conviction. Thus, circuit courts are under no duty to provide notice to Alford defendants any differently than the notice provided to defendants entering a standard guilty plea, or those defendants adjudicated guilty.”
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fun with numbers
If you were somehow immortal, and had saved $10,000 every day since the birth of christ.
today you would be the equal 200th richest person on the planet
the richest person would be worth 27 times more than you (seriously, Jeff Bezos just cleared the $200B mark)
let's finish with a joke
If you are feeling down about your lot in life, look on the bright side, you are far closer to being a millionaire than Jeff Bezos is
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@mariner4life said in The thread of learning something new every day:
fun with numbers
If you were somehow immortal, and had saved $10,000 every day since the birth of christ.
today you would be the equal 200th richest person on the planet
the richest person would be worth 27 times more than you (seriously, Jeff Bezos just cleared the $200B mark)
let's finish with a joke
If you are feeling down about your lot in life, look on the bright side, you are far closer to being a millionaire than Jeff Bezos is
Yeah but if Jeff Bezos was a ferner I doubt he'd get that many upvotes.
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@MN5 said in The thread of learning something new every day:
@dogmeat said in The thread of learning something new every day:
@MN5 you're Jeff Bezos!
Not as much as you. I have 7.6k likes. That makes me a pretty big deal around here.
'don't you know who I am'?
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@nzzp said in The thread of learning something new every day:
@MN5 said in The thread of learning something new every day:
@dogmeat said in The thread of learning something new every day:
@MN5 you're Jeff Bezos!
Not as much as you. I have 7.6k likes. That makes me a pretty big deal around here.
'don't you know who I am'?
Jesse Ryder. What a player
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@MN5 said in The thread of learning something new every day:
@dogmeat said in The thread of learning something new every day:
@MN5 you're Jeff Bezos!
Not as much as you. I have 7.6k likes. That makes me a pretty big deal around here.
Is that what reputation is? Number of likes?
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@Machpants said in The thread of learning something new every day:
@MN5 said in The thread of learning something new every day:
@dogmeat said in The thread of learning something new every day:
@MN5 you're Jeff Bezos!
Not as much as you. I have 7.6k likes. That makes me a pretty big deal around here.
Is that what reputation is? Number of likes?
Yeah it is. Took me awhile to figure it out too. It definitely helps impress the ladies in the real world
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@MN5 said in The thread of learning something new every day:
@Machpants said in The thread of learning something new every day:
@MN5 said in The thread of learning something new every day:
@dogmeat said in The thread of learning something new every day:
@MN5 you're Jeff Bezos!
Not as much as you. I have 7.6k likes. That makes me a pretty big deal around here.
Is that what reputation is? Number of likes?
Yeah it is. Took me awhile to figure it out too. It definitely helps impress the ladies in the real world
The Polish ones?
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@MN5 said in The thread of learning something new every day:
@dogmeat said in The thread of learning something new every day:
@MN5 you're Jeff Bezos!
Not as much as you. I have 7.6k likes. That makes me a pretty big deal around here.
That’s because we don’t have a pity button
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@Crucial said in The thread of learning something new every day:
@MN5 said in The thread of learning something new every day:
@dogmeat said in The thread of learning something new every day:
@MN5 you're Jeff Bezos!
Not as much as you. I have 7.6k likes. That makes me a pretty big deal around here.
That’s because we don’t have a pity button
I'm under no illusions. If there was a downvote button I'd have drowned years ago.
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@mariner4life ok, I shared this at work, and someone decided to work it out, and put 3% interest on this each year as well...you would have been a millionaire after 156 years and a billionaire after 390 years, after 2020, there are 30 digits, whatever that becomes?
Thats not accounting for tax or actually spending it.
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@taniwharugby said in The thread of learning something new every day:
@mariner4life ok, I shared this at work, and someone decided to work it out, and put 3% interest on this each year as well...you would have been a millionaire after 156 years and a billionaire after 390 years, after 2020, there are 30 digits, whatever that becomes?
Thats not accounting for tax or actually spending it.
I think the bottom line is billionaires are basically never ever good people. They’re essentially master manipulators who get rich off the back of their many underlings.
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@MN5 said in The thread of learning something new every day:
@dogmeat said in The thread of learning something new every day:
@MN5 you're Jeff Bezos!
Not as much as you. I have 7.6k likes. That makes me a pretty big deal around here.
