Case Citator › North Carolina v. Alford

North Carolina v. Alford

Is it still good law? What later courts have actually done to this case.

Limited by some courts
Court
Supreme Court of the United States
Citation
400 U.S. 25
Decided
Confirmed treatments
1
Flagged citations read
338 of 338
Citing cases (total)
9,454
Treatment dates
1980
Limited by some courts
At least one reviewed court has limited this case’s holding to narrower facts or a narrower rule. No reviewed court has overruled it. North Carolina v. Alford has been limited by a federal appeals court. All 338 flagged citations have been read.
More on how this was screened

The D.C. Circuit declined to extend Alford's rule permitting a guilty plea despite a claim of innocence to a defendant's decision about an insanity defense. That treatment is listed below; the other opinions did not adversely treat Alford.

Every treatment on this page is written from the citing opinion itself, with a verbatim quote, never copied from a commercial citator. A citation flagged by our screen but not shown here was read and found not to weaken this case.

9,454 later cases cite North Carolina v. Alford; 338 of those citations sat close to treatment language and were flagged for reading, and all of them have been read. Citations that did not sit near treatment language were not flagged and were not read one by one, so a court that weakened this case without using any of that language would not appear here.

Relying on North Carolina v. Alford?

This page shows what later courts did to it. Ask about your specific facts and see whether it still carries your argument, with citations you can check.

Treatments

Limited

  • The D.C. Circuit declined to extend Alford's protection for a defendant who pleads guilty while maintaining innocence to a defendant's decision about an insanity defense.

    United States v. Wright · D.C. Circuit · filed

    Thus, Alford’s protection of a defendant’s right to plead guilty, even while maintaining his own innocence, cannot similarly reserve the insanity plea decision to the defendant. Moreover, Alford itself is limited to permitting the self-claimed innocent’s ability to enter a guilty plea.
    Read the full opinion on CourtListener →

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