What Does It Mean to Accept a Plea Bargain?
In the United States, over 90 percent of cases are settled via plea bargains.
Plea bargains, also called deals or negotiated pleas, are how over 90 percent of court cases are resolved in the United States. It’s an agreement between the defendant and a prosecutor where the defendant agrees to plead guilty or no contest (nolo contendere), in exchange for a reduction in sentence and/or a lesser offense.
This means less than 10 percent of criminal cases ever go to trial.
There is also a little known form of plea called an Alford Plea, based on case law determined through The State of North Carolina vs Alford. Also known as a “best-interests plea,” an Alford plea registers a formal claim neither of guilt nor innocence toward charges brought against a defendant in criminal court. Like a nolo contendere plea, an Alford plea arrests the full process of criminal trial because the defendant — typically, only with the court’s permission — accepts all the ramifications of a guilty verdict (i.e. punishment) without first attesting to having committed the crime.
Criminal trials can last for days, weeks, or even months and most court systems don’t have the ability to seat the number of trials that would ensue based on the number of crimes charged. Pleas can…
