# Can you get the death penalty if you plead guilty? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 22, 2005, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-get-the-death-penalty-if-you-plead-guilty/300660 "2005-04-22T19:27:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-get-the-death-penalty-if-you-plead-guilty/300660/1 "2005-04-22T19:27:18Z")
Zacarias Moussaoui is pleading guilty, but apparntly there could still be a jury trial for the penalty phase and he’s still eligible for the death penalty. I thought that a guilty plea meant you avoided the death penalty. It doesn’t? And can a defendant work out a plea bargain in order to get the death sentance? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-get-the-death-penalty-if-you-plead-guilty/300660/2 "2005-04-22T19:44:04Z")
A guilty plea does not neccesarily mean you avoid the death penalty. A defendant can plea bargain with prosecutors to avoid the death penalty, though, and that happens a lot. Can a defendant work out a plea bargain to get the death sentence? Not exactly. According to the Supreme Court, there needs to be a seperate hearing before a jury in order to sentence someone to death. Hypothetically, if the defendant says to the jury, “Please, sentence me to death”, that might make it more likely they do, but it’s nothing the prosecution can guarantee. ---
**Author:** ![Blalron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@Blalron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blalron)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-get-the-death-penalty-if-you-plead-guilty/300660/3 "2005-04-22T19:50:56Z")
Theoretically, a defendent who wants the death penalty could plea bargain to get it and could skip a jury determination (although I suspect the judge would order a psychiatric evaluation of the defendent before accepting the plea) ---
**Author:** ![Blalron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@Blalron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blalron)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-get-the-death-penalty-if-you-plead-guilty/300660/4 "2005-04-22T19:57:41Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > Zacarias Moussaoui is pleading guilty, but apparntly there could still be a jury trial for the penalty phase and he’s still eligible for the death penalty. I thought that a guilty plea meant you avoided the death penalty. It doesn’t? If that were true, any defendent could avoid the death sentence simply by pleading guilty, and that would kind of defeat the purpose of having the death penalty. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-get-the-death-penalty-if-you-plead-guilty/300660/5 "2005-04-22T19:58:27Z")
So if he asks for the death penalty, obviously he’s crazy and they won’t give it to him. If he fights the death penalty, obviously he’s sane and they will give it to him. Hmmm… sounds like it could be the plot of a good novel … maybe change it to a war setting instead of a legal case? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-get-the-death-penalty-if-you-plead-guilty/300660/6 "2005-04-22T20:02:08Z")
Usually, the only reason a person would plead guilty to a capital crime is as part of a plea bargain deal, and a plea bargin would be pretty useless if it didn’t at least take the death penalty off of the table. But there’s no law saying you can’t execute someone pleading guilty outside of a plea bargain. I don’t know why Moussaoui is pleading guilty, but it may be that he misunderstands our justice system, or maybe he hopes to make some sort of political point. ---
**Author:** ![Campion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@Campion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Campion)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-get-the-death-penalty-if-you-plead-guilty/300660/7 "2005-04-22T20:23:46Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > So if he asks for the death penalty, obviously he’s crazy and they won’t give it to him. If he fights the death penalty, obviously he’s sane and they will give it to him. > > Hmmm… sounds like it could be the plot of a good novel … maybe change it to a war setting instead of a legal case? Or the case of Michael Bruce Ross, who was sentenced to death and who subsequently instructed his lawyer to stop appealing the death sentence. (See the Jan. 29, 2005 entry [here](http://www.legalreader.com/archives/2005_01.html), including the very interesting transcripts it links to.) ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-get-the-death-penalty-if-you-plead-guilty/300660/8 "2005-04-22T20:26:17Z")
Or for that matter, of Gary Gilmore, who was the first person executed after the Court reallowed it. ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-get-the-death-penalty-if-you-plead-guilty/300660/9 "2005-04-22T21:06:49Z")
> [@Blalron](#): > > If that were true, any defendent could avoid the death sentence simply by pleading guilty, and that would kind of defeat the purpose of having the death penalty. As if we needed even more. But that is for debates, I guess. xo C. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2005, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-get-the-death-penalty-if-you-plead-guilty/300660/10 "2005-04-23T04:26:09Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I don’t know why Moussaoui is pleading guilty, but it may be that he misunderstands our justice system, or maybe he hopes to make some sort of political point. We had a discussion of the possibility that he might not understand what was going on a few years ago. See this thread: [Why allow plea if it won’t be accepted?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=126800) and [modest cough] my contribution at post #6 [/modest cough] which **Bricker** and **pravnik** were kind enough to compliment me on. However, three years on, I would assume that Mr. Moussaoui knows more about the US system and the significance of his guilty plea. ---
**Author:** ![Mathochist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c89c15/32.png) [@Mathochist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mathochist)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2005, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-get-the-death-penalty-if-you-plead-guilty/300660/11 "2005-04-23T08:45:11Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > So if he asks for the death penalty, obviously he’s crazy and they won’t give it to him. If he fights the death penalty, obviously he’s sane and they will give it to him. > > Hmmm… sounds like it could be the plot of a good novel … maybe change it to a war setting instead of a legal case? You’d get sued by Dick Wolf and William Fordes, the creator of _Law & Order_ and writer of the episode “Genius” respectively, for ripping off their idea. Yes, their character actually wants the death penalty and isn’t making a dodge, but the principle is the same. ---
**Author:** ![TastesLikeBurning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@TastesLikeBurning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TastesLikeBurning)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2005, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-get-the-death-penalty-if-you-plead-guilty/300660/12 "2005-04-23T08:55:49Z")
> [@Blalron](#): > > If that were true, any defendent could avoid the death sentence simply by pleading guilty, and that would kind of defeat the purpose of having the death penalty. This would only be true if the accused actually committed the crime and believed they didn’t have much hope of defending themselves. Do you think anyone charged with a capital offense, who believed themself innocent, would actually just accept life imprisonment for a guilty plea rather than face the possibility of the death penalty? Or have I just misunderstood your post? ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2005, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-get-the-death-penalty-if-you-plead-guilty/300660/13 "2005-04-23T12:31:10Z")
> [@Mathochist](#): > > You’d get sued by Dick Wolf and William Fordes, the creator of _Law & Order_ and writer of the episode “Genius” respectively, for ripping off their idea. Yes, their character actually wants the death penalty and isn’t making a dodge, but the principle is the same. Actually, I was going for Joe Heller.