My LLM thesis I submitted for my degree at Robson Hall Faculty of Law, University of Manitoba. Comments, questions, and suggestions are all welcome. Although the time for revisions has long passed, I will likely try to refactor the thesis into an article or two, so comments and criticisms are still pertinent!
A no-contest plea allows criminal defendants to self-convict without requiring the state to prove its case against them. No-contest pleas may be inculpatory, exculpatory, or non-inculpatory. Guilty pleas are inculpatory no-contest pleas. When a defendant pleads guilty sincerely, they formally take responsibility for the offence and accept the consequences of doing so. Exculpatory and non-inculpatory no-contest pleas include best-interest pleas and nolo contendere pleas, respectively. When a enters one of these pleas, they agree to self-convict without formally taking responsibility for the offence.
In this thesis, I argue that the legal and ethical objections to these pleas and plea bargaining generally in Canada are largely misplaced. Nolo contendere pleas open new avenues of plea bargaining for defendants and prosecutors to explore, creating new opportunities for certainty, factual accuracy, agency, and mutual advantage in otherwise highly adversarial proceedings. Although statutory language formally forbids nolo contendere pleas in Canada, defendants may still enter them informally and surreptitiously. I conclude by arguing that these pleas be formalized and suggesting ways to implement them.