Hi, in the Magic the Gathering Community there’s been a furor over the fact that a commentator on the recent Grand Prix Atlantic City top 8(meaning final 8 competitors) was a convicted rapist(or technically aggravated sexual battery).
Here’s an article about the charge, which he pleaded guilty to, over ten years ago.
A judge in Virginia cannot accept a guilty plea unless he engages in a somewhat lengthy on-the-record conversation with the accused, in which he ensures that the accused is pleading guilty of his own free will, that no promises or inducements have been made, that he understands he has a right to a trial by a jury, that at trial the Commonwealth would have to prove each and every element of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt, and that the accused admits each and every element of the crime.
Sometimes the accused is reluctant to do this, but he must say enough to create a factual record that supports the guilty plea.
Sometimes the accused wants to say that he’s pleading guilty because, even though he’s innocent, the Commonwealth has enough evidence to convict him anyway. This is called an Alford plea. Accepting this plea is at the discretion of the court, and typically the judge won’t do so if the Commonwealth objects.
If he does, then the criminal conviction still stands, just as if he had entered a plea of ‘guilty,’ but his Alford plea can’t be used against him in a subsequent civil action.
How do you do a plea bargain? For example, if the prosecution drops a murder charge in exchange for a guilty plea on an aggravated littering charge, the defendant has to say he was offered an inducement, right?
Typically the plea bargain is to a lesser included offense, so the accused isn’t in the position of falsely confessing to a crime he didn’t commit in order to avoid trial on a more serious charge.
But that sort of “inducement” – a lesser charge – is perfectly acceptable, and the accused does not ruin his plea bargain if he says he’s guilty of the lesser charge.
If he says he’s not guilty, but is pleading guilty to the lesser charge to avoid trial, then we’re in Alford plea territory.