Plea

In legal terminology, a plea is simply an answer to a claim made by someone in a civil or criminal case under common law using the adversary system. Colloquially, a plea has come to mean the assertion by a criminal defendant, at arraignment or otherwise in response to a criminal charge, whether he is guilty or not guilty.

Related Topics:
Common law - Adversary system - Criminal - Arraignment

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The concept of the plea is one of the major differences between criminal procedure under common law and procedure under the civil law system. Under common law, a plea of guilty by the defendant waives jury trial of the charged offenses and the defendant may be sentenced immediately. This produces a system under American law known as plea bargaining.

Related Topics:
Civil law - Jury trial - Sentence - Plea bargain

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In civil law jurisdictions, there is no concept of a plea of guilty. A confession by the defendant is treated like any other piece of evidence, and a full confession does not prevent a full trial from occurring or relieve the

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prosecution from its duty of presenting a case to the trial court.

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