In some legal systems pleading guilty can result in a more lenient punishment for the defendant; it is thus a type of mitigating factor in sentencing.
In a plea bargain, a defendant makes a deal with the prosecution or court to plead guilty in exchange for a more lenient punishment, or for related charges against them to be dropped.
In cases of piracy or felony the accused was tortured by pressing until he entered a plea; Edward Coke reported details of such during a murder trial in the reign of James I.
[9] One example of this was a defendant accused of a crime committed while protesting a nuclear power plant, who gave his plea as "I plead for the beauty that surrounds us".
[10] A defendant who enters a plea of guilty must do so, in the phraseology of a 1938 United States Supreme Court case, Johnson v. Zerbst, "knowingly, voluntarily and intelligently".
Typically the hearing on the guilty plea is transcribed by a court reporter, and the transcript is made a part of the permanent record of the case to preserve the conviction's validity from being challenged at some future time.
"Intelligent" has been described as "an elusive term, meaning that the defendant knows his rights, the nature of the charge to which he is pleading, and the consequences of his plea.
Virtually all jurisdictions hold that defense counsel need not discuss with defendants the collateral consequences of pleading guilty, such as consecutive sentencing or even treatment as an aggravating circumstance in an ongoing capital prosecution.
A conditional plea is one where the defendant pleads guilty to the offense but expressly reserves the right to appeal certain aspects of the charges (for example, that the evidence was illegally obtained).
In United States v. Binion, malingering or feigning illness during a competency evaluation was held to be obstruction of justice and led to an enhanced sentence.
Although the defendant had pleaded guilty, he was not awarded a reduction in sentence because the feigned illness was considered to mean that he was not accepting responsibility for his illegal behavior.
Three special pleas (though not in the strictest sense of the word) exist in the criminal courts of England and Wales: Demurrer: Which is an "objection to the form or substance of the indictment".