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What consequences? "Not guilty" means "not guilty". You need to look up what an Alford Pleading is. Not guilty might mean not guilty in your mind, but it doesn't necessarily mean that in court. You don't get the privilege of paying $30,000, be told by a judge that you have to endure treatment for drug dependence and keep your nose clean for 18 months if you are not guilty. Your right, not guilty means not guilty if the court says so, not because Rush says so. If the court said he was not guilty the charges would have been dismissed today, not 18 months from today. Now all that said, Rush got a bum rap out of all this for the last year. But what does it matter? It's not like he has to worry about filling out a job application in the future. He's not going to lose any listeners and he's not going to change his philosophy of bashing the daylights out of the liberals in this country. In short, the only thing liberals get out of this today is a couple of days slapping each other on the back. BIG DEAL!
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I did, and it is evidently a guilty plea by a defendant who claims innocence.
A plea of nolo contendere does not expressly admit guilt but nevertheless authorizes a court to treat the defendant as if he or she were guilty. North Carolina v. Alford, 400 U.S. 25, 35, 27 L.Ed. 2d 162, 91 S. Ct.. 160 (1970). The United States Supreme Courtcould not perceive any material difference in practicalconsequences between pleading guilty while protesting onesinnocence, as was the case in Alford, and pleading nolo contendere. Id. at 37. A criminal defendant in Nevada has only four possiblepleas: not guilty, guilty, guilty but mentally ill, or nolo contendere. NRS 174.035(1). No provision is made for a fifth type of plea under Alford, nor would it make any sense to so provide. Weexpressly hold that whenever a defendant maintains his or her innocence but pleads guilty pursuant to Alford, the plea constitutes one of nolo contendere
Your right, not guilty means not guilty if the court says so, not because Rush says so.
Of course I am right, since a plea remains that until a jury decides otherwise. None will.
Amendment VI
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.