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A change of plea hearing happens at the end of a case when the defendant and the prosecution have reached an agreement, or when a defendant simply desires to plead guilty or no contest to the court. Sometimes, the court will schedule a particular date for a pretrial conference.
The name, Alford plea, is taken from the case North Carolina v. Alford. An Alford plea, also known as a "best-interests plea," registers a formal admission of guilt towards charges in criminal court while the defendant simultaneously expresses their innocence toward those same charges.
An Alford plea allows a defendant to plead guilty while maintaining their innocence. Some states do not allow Alford pleas and require a defendant to plead not guilty if they are asserting that they are innocent. Other states allow Alford pleas in the context of no contest pleas but not guilty pleas.
Both an Alford plea and a no contest plea are the functional equivalents of a guilty plea. A defendant who enters an Alford plea pleads guilty but claims to be innocent. With a no contest plea, a defendant accepts punishment but doesn't admit guilt. Both kinds of plea result in convictions.
Defendants usually enter an Alford guilty plea if they want to avoid a possible worse sentence were they to lose the case against them at trial. It affords defendants the ability to accept a plea bargain, while maintaining innocence.
You generally cannot appeal a conviction stemming from a plea of guilty or no contest. But you can make a motion to withdraw a guilty plea or no contest plea. If a judge grants the motion, you are then given the chance to withdraw the prior plea and substitute it with a plea of not guilty.
Under Utah law, a no contest plea will only be approved ?after due consideration of the views of the parties and the interest of the public in the effective administration of justice.? Because of this requirement, courts do not have to accept a no contest plea, whereas a plea of guilty does not carry with it the
Henry Alford ? indicted for first degree murder in 1963; maintained his innocence but pleaded guilty to second degree murder due to the significance of the evidence. He pleaded guilty to second degree murder so as to avoid the death penalty.