Allocution is sometimes required of a defendant who pleads guilty to a crime in a plea bargain in exchange for a reduced sentence.

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.

" 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.

It affords defendants the ability to accept a plea bargain, while maintaining innocence.

" Bibas notes that prominent plea bargain critic Albert Alschuler supports the use of this form of plea, writing, " He views them as a lesser evil, a way to empower defendants within a flawed system.

They point out that most cases in adversarial systems are actually resolved by plea bargain and settlement.

In addition, proponents of inquisitorial systems argue that the plea bargain system causes the participants within the system to act in perverse ways, in that it encourages prosecutors to bring charges far in excess of what is warranted and defendants to plead guilty even when they believe that they are not.

The usual incentive to cooperate is some form of plea bargain i. e. an offer to drop or reduce criminal charges against a suspect in return for full cooperation.

A plea bargain ( Strafbefehl ) is not applicable for felony crimes at all.

Nevertheless, the vast majority of criminal cases are in fact settled by plea bargain, which removes the need for a jury trial.

The vast majority of US criminal cases are not concluded with a jury verdict, but rather by plea bargain.

Both prosecutors and defendants often have a strong interest in resolving the criminal case by negotiation resulting in a plea bargain.

Michael Chertoff, then-head of the criminal division of the U. S. Department of Justice, then directed the prosecutors to offer Lindh a plea bargain, to which, Lindh would plead guilty to two charges: — supplying services to the Taliban (,,, and ) and carrying an explosive during the commission of a felony ().

As another result of Lindh's plea bargain, a Son of Sam law was invoked.

On October 31, 2001, she accepted a plea bargain and pled guilty to two counts of possessing explosives with intent to murder.

As part of a plea bargain, the other charges were dropped.

Immediately after entering the plea, however, Olson told reporters that she was innocent and that she had decided to take a plea bargain due to the climate after the September 11 attacks, in which she felt an accused bomber could not receive a fair trial from a jury.

She was sentenced on February 14, 2003 for the maximum term allowed under her plea bargain, which was a six-year term concurrent to the 14-year sentence she was already serving.

Davis attempted to pursue the case in the courts, before eventually dropping the proceedings in a plea bargain in order to recover his suspended Cabaret Card, enabling him to return to work in New York clubs.

After a plea bargain, he pled guilty to six securities and reporting violations but was never convicted of racketeering or insider trading.

Drexel management immediately began plea bargain talks, concluding that no financial institution could survive a RICO indictment.

The most important of these found him in agreement with Hough's plea for reform.

" As part of a plea agreement, Capp pleaded guilty to the charge of " attempted adultery " ( adultery was, and as of 2011 still is a felony in Wisconsin ) and the other charges were dropped.

* The issue of competency is whether a defendant is able to adequately assist his attorney in preparing a defense, make informed decisions about trial strategy and whether or not to plead guilty or accept a plea agreement.

* 1998 – A federal judge in Sacramento, California, gives " Unabomber " Theodore Kaczynski four life sentences plus 30 years after Kaczynski accepts a plea agreement sparing him from the death penalty.

A plea bargain ( also plea agreement, plea deal or copping a plea ) is an agreement in a criminal case between the prosecutor and defendant whereby the defendant agrees to plead guilty to a particular charge in return for some concession from the prosecutor.

The main danger to be guarded against in these cases is that the prosecutor is persuaded to agree to a plea or a basis that is not in the public interest and interests of justice because it does not adequately reflect the seriousness of the offending ... Any plea agreement must reflect the seriousness and extent of the offending and give the court adequate sentencing powers.

Thus, weaker cases result in more lenient plea bargains, and stronger ones in relative harshness, but both result in an agreement.

For example, if a prosecutor has only a 25 % chance of winning his case and sending the defendant away to prison for 10 years, he may make a plea agreement for a sentence of one year ; but if plea bargaining is unavailable, a prosecutor may drop the case completely.

An 11 ( c )( 1 )( B ) agreement does not bind the court ; the prosecutor's recommendation is merely advisory, and the defendant cannot withdraw his plea if the court decides to impose a sentence other than what was stipulated in the agreement.

When such an agreement is proposed, the court can reject it if it disagrees with the proposed sentence, in which case the defendant has an opportunity to withdraw his plea.

Plea bargaining ( Georgian: საპროცესო შეთანხმება, literally " plea agreement ") was introduced in Georgia in 2004.

A plea bargaining, also called as plea agreement or negotiated plea is an alternative and consensual way of criminal case settlement.

A plea agreement means settlement of case without main hearing when the defendant agrees to plead guilty in exchange for a lesser charge or for a more lenient sentence and / or for dismissal of certain related charges.

Special pleas in federal criminal cases have been abolished, and defences formerly raised by special plea are now raised by motion to dismiss.

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.

On July 15, 2002, he entered his plea of guilty to the two remaining charges.

On November 13, Olson filed a motion requesting to withdraw her guilty plea and acknowledged that she did not misunderstand the judge when he read the charges against her.

Michael Robert Milken ( born July 4, 1946 ) is an American business magnate, financier, and philanthropist noted for his role in the development of the market for high-yield bonds ( also called " junk bonds ") during the 1970s and 1980s, for his 1990 guilty plea to felony charges for violating US securities laws, and for his funding of medical research.

However, unlike a guilty plea, a defendant in a plea may not be required to allocute the charges.

As many crimes have very narrow sentencing bands, a prosecutor often has scope to propose whatever degree of " discounted " charges, or substitution of misdemeanor rather than felony charges, to whatever extent they believe would incentivise a defendant to make a guilty plea and accept a speedy conviction, regardless of actual guilt.

Like other common law jurisdictions, the Crown can also agree to withdraw some charges against the defendant in exchange for a guilty plea.

In some common law jurisdictions, such as England and Wales and the Australian state of Victoria, plea bargaining is permitted only to the extent that the prosecutors and the defense can agree that the defendant will plead guilty to some charges and the prosecutor will drop the remainder.

Also, unlike common law systems, prosecutors in civil law countries may have limited or no power to drop or reduce charges after a case has been filed, and in some countries their power to drop or reduce charges before a case has been filed is limited, making plea bargaining impossible.

Sometimes, the prosecutor agrees to reduce a charge or to drop some of multiple charges in exchange for the defendant's guilty plea, often to a lesser offense.

Other special pleas used in criminal cases include the plea of mental incompetence, challenging the jurisdiction of the court over the defendant's person, the plea in bar, attacking the jurisdiction of the court over the crime charged, and the plea in abatement, which is used to address procedural errors in bringing the charges against the defendant, not apparent on the " face " of the indictment or other charging instrument.

Luther, along with his colleague Philipp Melanchthon, emphasized this point in his plea for the Reformation at the Reichstag in 1529 amid charges of heresy.