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Tue 24 Aug, 2004 09:56 am
Edit: Moderator: Moved from General News to Legal
what it means to plead no contest.
It means you will not contest the charges against you. It sometimes means the evidence is so overwhelming that you can't put up a decent fight. Sometimes it's used as a plea agreement for a reduced sentence or to avoid a lengthy trial.
"No contest" (nolo contendere) is a plea made by a criminal defendant. It means that the defendant will not contest the state's charges. In practice, this is like a "guilty" plea, in that the defendant does not go to trial but instead accepts the sentence imposed by the court.
The only reason that a defendant would plead "no contest" is that, unlike a "guilty" plea, a "no contest" plea cannot be used as an admission of culpability in a subsequent civil trial.