In United States law,an Alford plea,also called a Kennedy plea in West Virginia,an Alford guilty plea,and the Alford doctrine,is a guilty plea in criminal court,whereby a defendant in a criminal case does not admit to the criminal act and asserts innocence,but accepts imposition of a sentence. This plea is allowed even if the evidence to be presented by the prosecution would be likely to persuade a judge or jury to find the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. This can be caused by circumstantial evidence and testimony favoring the prosecution,and difficulty finding evidence and witnesses that would aid the defense.
A plea bargain,also known as a plea agreement or plea deal,is a legal arrangement in criminal law where the defendant agrees to plead guilty or no contest to a charge in exchange for concessions from the prosecutor. These concessions can include a reduction in the severity of the charges,the dismissal of some charges,or a more lenient sentencing recommendation. Plea bargaining serves as a mechanism to expedite the resolution of criminal cases,allowing both the prosecution and the defense to avoid the time,expense,and uncertainty of a trial. It is a prevalent practice in the United States,where it resolves the vast majority of criminal cases,and has been adopted in various forms in other legal systems worldwide.
Miranda v. Arizona,384 U.S. 436 (1966),was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that law enforcement in the United States must warn a person of their constitutional rights before interrogating them,or else the person's statements cannot be used as evidence at their trial. Specifically,the Court held that under the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,the government cannot use a person's statements made in response to an interrogation while in police custody as evidence at the person's criminal trial unless they can show that the person was informed of the right to consult with a lawyer before and during questioning,and of the right against self-incrimination before police questioning,and that the defendant not only understood these rights but also voluntarily waived them before answering questions.
North Carolina v. Alford,400 U.S. 25 (1970),was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States affirmed that there are no constitutional barriers in place to prevent a judge from accepting a guilty plea from a defendant who wants to plead guilty,while still protesting his innocence,under duress,as a detainee status. This type of plea has become known as an Alford plea,differing slightly from the nolo contendere plea in which the defendant agrees to being sentenced for the crime,but does not admit guilt. Alford died in prison in 1975.
United States v. Booker,543 U.S. 220 (2005),is a United States Supreme Court decision on criminal sentencing. The Court ruled that the Sixth Amendment right to jury trial requires that other than a prior conviction,only facts admitted by a defendant or proved beyond a reasonable doubt to a jury may be used to calculate a sentence exceeding the prescribed statutory maximum sentence,whether the defendant has pleaded guilty or been convicted at trial. The maximum sentence that a judge may impose is based upon the facts admitted by the defendant or proved to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt.
Dickerson v. United States,530 U.S. 428 (2000),upheld the requirement that the Miranda warning be read to criminal suspects and struck down a federal statute that purported to overrule Miranda v. Arizona (1966).
Alan Morton Dershowitz is an American lawyer and law professor known for his work in U.S. constitutional law and American criminal law. From 1964 to 2013,he taught at Harvard Law School,where he was appointed as the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law in 1993. Dershowitz is a regular media contributor,political commentator,and legal analyst.
Loretta A. Preska is an American lawyer who serves as a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Born in Albany,Preska received law degrees from Fordham University School of Law and New York University School of Law. She practiced law in New York City from 1973 to 1992 at the law firms of Cahill Gordon &Reindel and Hertzog,Calamari &Gleason. President George H. W. Bush appointed her to the district bench in 1992. She served as chief judge of the court for a seven-year term from 2009 to 2016,and took senior status in 2017. President George W. Bush nominated Preska to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 2008,but the Senate did not act on the nomination.
The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution creates several constitutional rights,limiting governmental powers focusing on criminal procedures. It was ratified,along with nine other amendments,in 1791 as part of the Bill of Rights.
Rene Alexander Acosta is an American attorney and politician,who served as the 27th United States Secretary of Labor from 2017 to 2019. President Donald Trump nominated Acosta to be Labor Secretary on February 16,2017,and he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on April 27,2017.
Pearson v. Callahan,555 U.S. 223 (2009),was a case decided by the United States Supreme Court dealing with the doctrine of qualified immunity.
Marsy's Law,the California Victims' Bill of Rights Act of 2008,enacted by voters as Proposition 9 through the initiative process in the November 2008 general election,is an amendment to the state's constitution and certain penal code sections. The act protects and expands the legal rights of victims of crime to include 17 rights in the judicial process,including the right to legal standing,protection from the defendant,notification of all court proceedings,and restitution,as well as granting parole boards far greater powers to deny inmates parole. Critics allege that the law unconstitutionally restricts defendant's rights by allowing prosecutors to withhold exculpatory evidence under certain circumstances,and harms victims by restricting their rights to discovery,depositions,and interviews.
Stephanos Bibas is an American lawyer and jurist who serves as a circuit judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Before his appointment to the bench,Bibas was a professor of law and criminology at the University of Pennsylvania Law School,where he also served as director of its Supreme Court clinic.
Plea bargaining in the United States is very common;the vast majority of criminal cases in the United States are settled by plea bargain rather than by a jury trial. They have also been increasing in frequency—they rose from 84% of federal cases in 1984 to 94% by 2001. Plea bargains are subject to the approval of the court,and different States and jurisdictions have different rules. Game theory has been used to analyze the plea bargaining decision.
William Curtis Bryson is a Senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. He also served a 7-year term as a judge on the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review,until 2018,and on September 1,2013,became the presiding judge of that court.
Yarborough v. Alvarado,541 U.S. 652 (2004),is a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court declined to overturn a state court's conclusion that a minor was not in custody for Miranda purposes during his police interview. Michael Alvarado helped his friend Paul Soto steal a truck in Santa Fe Springs,California. The truck owner was killed by Soto during the robbery and Alvarado was convicted of second-degree murder for his role in the crime. The evidence for Alvarado's conviction was primarily based on statements given by Alvarado during a two-hour police interrogation that occurred when Alvarado's parents brought him to the police station. Alvarado was 17 years old and was not read his Miranda rights before questioning. During Alvarado's murder trial in a state court,motions to suppress the statements given by Alvarado were denied on the ground that Alvarado was not in police custody at the time of the interrogation and thus did not have to be read his Miranda rights. Alvarado appealed his conviction,claiming that the determination that he was not in custody was incorrect because the courts did not take his age into account.
Lafler v. Cooper,566 U.S. 156 (2012),was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court clarified the Sixth Amendment standard for reversing convictions due to ineffective assistance of counsel during plea bargaining. The Court ruled that when a lawyer's ineffective assistance leads to the rejection of a plea agreement,a defendant is entitled to relief if the outcome of the plea process would have been different with competent advice. In such cases,the Court ruled that the Sixth Amendment requires the trial judge to exercise discretion to determine an appropriate remedy.
Virginia Louise Giuffre is an American-Australian campaigner who offers support to victims of sex trafficking. She is an alleged victim of the sex trafficking ring of Jeffrey Epstein. Giuffre created Victims Refuse Silence,a non-profit based in the United States,in 2015,which was relaunched under the name Speak Out,Act,Reclaim (SOAR) in November 2021. She has given a detailed account to many American and British reporters about her experiences of being trafficked by Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
In the United States,the trial penalty refers to the difference between the smaller sentence offered to a defendant in a plea bargain prior to a criminal trial versus the larger sentence the defendant could receive if they elect to go to trial. It sits at the center of a legal debate over whether trial penalties abridge defendants' Sixth Amendment right to trial.
