Offers To Plead Guilty To A Crime
FRE 410 holds that (1) withdrawn guilty pleas; (2) nolo contendere pleas; (3) statements made during proceedings regarding guilty pleas; (4) statements made during proceedings regarding nolo contendere pleas; (5) and statements made during plea discussions with an attorney present are inadmissible for public policy reasons even if they are relevant. The motivation behind excluding such pleas from evidence is to encourage plea bargaining.
Two FRE-contained exceptions apply to this rule: criminal pleas, plea discussions, and related statements are admissible (i) in any proceeding where another statement made in the course of the same plea or plea discussion has been introduced and the statement ought in fairness be considered contemporaneously with it, or (ii) in a criminal proceeding for perjury or false statement if the statement was made by the defendant under oath, on the record, and in the presence of counsel.
Additionally, a criminal defendant may waive inadmissibility protections, rendering criminal pleas, plea discussions, and related statements admissible at trial. It is a common practice for prosecutors drawing up plea deals to include terms requiring the defendant to agree that statements made in the course of plea negotiations may be used to impeach the testimony of that defendant, to protect against the possibility of the defendant later changing her story.
- Note that if a defendant chooses not withdraw her guilty plea, this is an admission by a party opponent and may be admitted into evidence in subsequent civil proceedings.
Read more about this topic: Public Policy Doctrines For The Exclusion Of Relevant Evidence
Famous quotes containing the words offers to, offers, plead, guilty and/or crime:
“The best bribe which London offers to-day to the imagination, is, that, in such a vast variety of people and conditions, one can believe there is room for persons of romantic character to exist, and that the poet, the mystic, and the hero may hope to confront their counterparts.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I have often noticed that a bribe ... has that effect—it changes a relation. The man who offers a bribe gives away a little of his own importance; the bribe once accepted, he becomes the inferior, like a man who has paid for a woman.”
—Graham Greene (1904–1991)
“It will help me nothing
To plead mine innocence, for that dye is on me
Which makes my whit’st part black.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“A young bride is like a plucked flower; but a guilty wife is like a flower that had been walked over.”
—Honoré De Balzac (1799–1850)
“It is a crime to put a Roman citizen in chains, it is an enormity to flog one, sheer murder to slay one: what, then, shall I say of crucifixion? It is impossible to find the word for such an abomination.”
—Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 B.C.)