Under the Alford plea, the defendant admits that sufficient evidence exists with which the prosecution could likely convince a judge or jury to find the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

The Alford guilty plea originated in the United States Supreme Court case of North Carolina v. Alford ( 1970 ).

Had he pled guilty to first-degree murder, Alford would have had the possibility of a life sentence, but avoided the death penalty.

Alford pled guilty to second-degree murder, and said he was doing so to avoid a death sentence if he had been convicted of first-degree murder after attempting to contest that charge.

Alford appealed and requested a new trial, arguing he was forced into a guilty plea because he was afraid of receiving a death sentence.

" I just pleaded guilty because they said if I didn't, they would gas me for it ," wrote Alford in one of his appeals.

The Dictionary of Politics: Selected American and Foreign Political and Legal Terms defines the term Alford plea as: " A plea under which a defendant may choose to plead guilty, not because of an admission to the crime, but because the prosecutor has sufficient evidence to place a charge and to obtain conviction in court.

According to the book Gender, Crime, and Punishment published by Yale University Press, " Under the Alford doctrine, a defendant does not admit guilt but admits that the state has sufficient evidence to find him or her guilty, should the case go to trial.

" Webster's New World Law Dictionary defines Alford plea as: " A guilty plea entered as part of a plea bargain by a criminal defendant who denies committing the crime or who does not actually admit his guilt.

The Alford guilty plea is " a plea of guilty containing a protestation of innocence ".

Upon receiving an Alford guilty plea from a defendant, the court may immediately pronounce the defendant guilty and impose sentence as if the defendant had otherwise been convicted of the crime.

Sources disagree, as may differing states ' laws, as to what category of plea the Alford plea falls under: Some sources state that the Alford guilty plea is a form of nolo contendere, where the defendant in the case states " no contest " to the factual matter of the case as given in the charges outlined by the prosecution.

Others hold that an Alford plea is simply one form of a guilty plea, and, as with other guilty pleas, the judge must see there is some factual basis for the plea.

Defendants can take advantage of the ability to use the Alford guilty plea, by admitting there is enough evidence to convict them of a higher crime, while at the same time pleading guilty to a lesser charge.

Pleas of " nolo contendere " ( no contest ) and the " Alford plea " are allowed in some circumstances.

An Alford plea ( also called a Kennedy plea in the state of West Virginia, an

Alford was sentenced to thirty years in prison, after the trial judge in the case accepted the plea bargain and ruled that the defendant had been adequately apprised by his lawyer.

Following this ruling, Alford petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, which upheld the initial ruling, and subsequently to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit which ruled that Alford's plea was not voluntary, because it was made under fear of the death penalty.

" According to University of Richmond Law Review, " When offering an Alford plea, a defendant asserts his innocence but admits that sufficient evidence exists to convict him of the offense.

" A Guide to Military Criminal Law notes that under the Alford plea, " the defendant concedes that the prosecution has enough evidence to convict, but the defendant still refuses to admit guilt.

* 2002 " When I Fall In Love " ( with Tee Alford and Sybil Lynch )

* 1998 " When I Fall In Love ", as The Klub Family ( with Tee Alford and Sybil Lynch )

* 2000 " When I Fall In Love ( Remixes )", as The Klub Family ( with Tee Alford and Sybil Lynch )

: Fučík Entrance of the Gladiators / Alford Colonel Bogey / Sousa Stars and Stripes Forever / Elgar Pomp & Circumstance No. 4 / Farnon State Occasion / Papineau-Couture Marche de Guillaument / Beethoven Turkish March ( from The Ruins of Athens ) / Schubert Marche Militaire / Johann Strauss I Radetzky March / Healey Willan Centennial March / Delibes Cortège de Bacchus / Tchaikovsky Jurisprudence March / Michael Conway Baker March ( Evocations, Movement II ) / Adaskin March No. 2 / Halvorsen Triumphal Entry of the Boyars / Grieg " March of the Dwarfs " ( from Lyric Suite / Herbert March of the Toys ( from Babes in Toyland ) / Rodgers March of the Siamese Children ( from The King & I ) / John Williams The Imperial March ( from The Empire Strikes Back )

Then, in 1931, the Reverend Alford, vicar of Marshfield, heard his gardener mumbling the words ' Room, room, a gallant room, I say ' and discovered that this line was part of a mummers ' play.

In 1994 it was shown by W. R. ( Red ) Alford, Andrew Granville and Carl Pomerance that there really do exist infinitely many Carmichael numbers.

North Carolina v. Alford, Supreme Court of the United States | U. S. Supreme Court ( 1970 )

In 2000 the United States Department of Justice noted, " In an Alford plea the defendant agrees to plead guilty because he or she

In the 2006 case before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, Ballard v. Burton, Judge Carl E. Stewart writing for the Court held that an Alford guilty plea is a " variation of an ordinary guilty plea ".

In October 2008, the United States Department of Justice defined an Alford plea as: " when a the defendant maintains his or her innocence with respect to the charge to which he or she offers to plead guilty ".

* North Carolina v. Alford, Supreme Court of the United States

In 1960, he was a Republican candidate for the United States House of Representatives, having been defeated by the incumbent Democrat Dale Alford of Little Rock.

Alford is a town in Jackson County, Florida, United States.

* Julius C. Alford, ( 1799 – 1863 ), born in Greensboro, United States Congressman from Georgia

Alford is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States.

On the national level, Alford is represented in the United States House of Representatives as part of Massachusetts's 1st congressional district, and has been represented by John Olver of Amherst since June 1991.

* John W. Hulbert, ( 1770 – 1831 ), born in Alford, lawyer and United States Congressman from Massachusetts

* Alford plea, in United States law

In 1815 he was created Viscount Alford and Earl Brownlow in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.

* Democrat Dale Alford was elected as a write-in candidate to the United States House of Representatives in Arkansas in 1958.

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.

In the dissent, Justice William Brennan stated that capital punishment in the United States was unconstitutional, and wrote that the actual effect of this unconstitutional threat to Alford was to induce a guilty plea.

* North Carolina v. Alford, Supreme Court of the United States