kennedy plea
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.78 in modern English
21
Scrabble Score
11
Letters
2
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A plea in criminal court in which the defendant does not admit guilt, but concedes that the state has sufficient evidence to obtain a conviction.
American usage
Example Sentences
- "The Charleston man whose conviction for the shooting death of a former Marshall University football player was overturned, has entered a "Kennedy Plea", rather than go through a second trial... In a Kennedy Plea, the person does not accept guilt, but accepts the punishment for the crime."
- "To avoid a lengthy trial and possibly a harsher sentence, 34-year-old Don Douglas Dicken entered a Kennedy plea to the voluntary manslaughter of 46-year-old Glenn L. Farrow... When a defendant enters a Kennedy plea, he or she does not admit committing the criminal act, but believes a plea deal is in his or her best interest instead of taking the case to trial."
- "Williams previously entered a Kennedy plea to second-degree robbery. Williams denied he knew anything about the crime and was not a lookout, as accused..."
Etymology
From the case of Kennedy v. Frazier, 178 W.Va. 10, 357 S.E.2d 43 (1987), in which the procedure was upheld by the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia.
Usage
- American usage