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In legal terminology, a plea is simply an answer to a claim made by someone in a civil or criminal case under common law using the adversary system. Colloquially, a plea has come to mean the assertion by a criminal defendant, at arraignment or otherwise in response to a criminal charge, whether he is guilty or not guilty. This article concerns the common-law legal system, as contrasted with the civil law legal system; for other meanings of the term, within the field of law, see common law (disambiguation). ...
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A crime in a broad sense is an act that violates a political or moral law of any one person or social grouping. ...
Arraignment is a common law term for the formal reading of a criminal complaint, in the presence of the defendant, to inform him of the charges against him. ...
The concept of the plea is one of the major differences between criminal procedure under common law and procedure under the civil law system. Under common law, a plea of guilty by the defendant waives jury trial of the charged offenses and the defendant may be sentenced immediately. This produces a system under American law known as plea bargaining. Civil law is a codified system of law that sets out a comprehensive system of rules that are applied and interpreted by judges. ...
A jury trial is a trial in which the judge of the facts, as opposed to the judge of the law, is a jury, made up of citizens who are usually randomly selected and are generally not legal professionals. ...
In law, a sentence forms the final act of a judge-ruled process, and also the symbolic principal act connected to his function. ...
A plea bargain is an agreement in a criminal case in which a prosecutor and a defendant arrange to settle the case against the defendant. ...
In civil law jurisdictions, there is no concept of a plea of guilty. A confession by the defendant is treated like any other piece of evidence, and a full confession does not prevent a full trial from occurring or relieve the prosecution from its duty of presenting a case to the trial court.
Peremptory pleas are pleas that a case cannot proceed because the defendant has already been convicted of the charge (and thus cannot be tried again), or previously acquitted of the same charge (and hence cannot be tried again, under the doctrine of double jeopardy), or has been pardonned for the offence. They are so called because, rather than being an answer to the question of guilt or innonce, they are a claim that the matter of guilt or innocence should not be considered. In the common law legal system, the peremptory pleas (pleas in bar), are pleas that set out special reasons for which a trial cannot go ahead. ...
In the common law legal system, a plea of autrefois convict (Law French for previously convicted) is one in which the defendant claims to have been previously convicted for the same offence and that hence they cannot be tried again. ...
In the common law legal system, a plea of autrefois acquit (French for previously acquitted) means the defendant claims to have been previously acquitted of the same offence, on substantially the same evidence, and that hence he or she cannot be tried again. ...
Double jeopardy (also called autrefois acquit meaning already acquitted) is a procedural defense (and, in many countries such as the United States, Canada and India, a constitutional right) that forbids a defendant from being tried a second time for a crime, after having already been tried for the same crime. ...
In the common law legal system, the plea of pardon is where a defendant claims they have been pardoned for an offence, and hence cannot be tried for it. ...
United States A defendant who pleads guilty must do so, in the phraseology of a 1938 Supreme Court case, "knowingly, voluntarily and intelligently". The burden is on the prosecution to prove that all waivers of the defendant's rights complied with due process standards. Accordingly, in cases of all but the most minor offenses, the court or the prosecution (depending upon local custom and the presiding judge's preference) will engage in a plea colloquy wherein they ask the defendant a series of rote questions about the defendant's knowledge of his rights and the voluntariness of the plea. Typically the hearing on the guilty plea is transcribed by a court reporter and the transcript is made a part of the permanent record of the case in order to preserve the conviction's validity from being challenged at some future time. A defendant or defender is any party who is required to answer the complaint of a plaintiff or pursuer in a civil lawsuit before a court, or any party who has been formally charged or accused of violating a criminal statute. ...
A plea colloquy, in United States criminal procedure, is a conversation between a judge and a criminal defendant who has been sworn under oath, which must occur when the defendant enters a guilty plea in court in order for the plea to be valid. ...
A court reporter, stenotype reporter or stenographer is a person whose occupation is to transcribe spoken or recorded speech into written form, typically using a Stenotype to produce official transcripts of court hearings, depositions and other official proceedings. ...
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. Special pleas in federal criminal cases have been abolished, and defenses formerly raised by special plea are now raised by motion to dismiss.
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