alford plea
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Colorado Supreme Court finds no requirement for strong evidence of guilt in special type of guilty plea
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Criminal defendants may validly enter into a specific type of guilty plea, even if they insist they are innocent and no strong evidence of guilt supports the plea, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled on Monday. More than five decades ago, in the case of North Carolina v. Alford, the nation’s highest court upheld the constitutionality of…
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Guilty, yet innocent: Colorado justices examine requirements for unique type of plea
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In 1970, the U.S. Supreme Court gave its approval to a special type of guilty plea, one in which a criminal defendant maintains his innocence while, at the same time, accepting a plea deal from the prosecution. Those “Alford pleas,” named after the case North Carolina v. Alford, are permissible when a defendant believes it is…
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State Supreme Court takes up cases on revenge porn, virtual court difficulties
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Colorado’s Supreme Court justices have announced they will review four decisions of the state’s Court of Appeals, ranging from a criminal conviction under the “revenge-porn” law to a man’s struggles accessing the virtual hearing where a judge terminated his parental rights. Two members of the court indicated they would have granted an additional appeal clarifying…
