NOLO CONTENDERE (Lat. I do not wish to contest). A plea sometimes accepted in criminal cases not capital whereby the de fendant does not directly admit himself to be guilty, but tacitly admits it by throwing himself upon the mercy of the court and de siring to submit to a small fine, which plea the court may either accept or decline. Chit ty, Crim. L. 431. The difference in effect be tween this "implied confession" and a plea of guilty is that, after the latter, not guilty cannot be pleaded in an action of trespass for the same injury, whereas it may be pleaded at any time after the former. The defendant making this plea may take excep tion in arrest of judgment for faults appar ent on the record; id.
The acceptance of the plea is said to rest entirely upon the discretion of the trial judge ; State v. Henson, 66 N. J. L. 601, 50 Atl. 468, 616 ; State v. La Rose, 71 N. H. 435, 52 Atl. 943; Com. v. Ingersoll, 145 Mass. 381, 14 N. E. 449. This plea has the same effect in a criminal case as the plea of guilty, to the extent that judgment and sentence may be pronounced as if upon a verdict of guilty ; Corn. v. Ingersoll, 145 Mass. 381, 14 N. E. 449; Clark, Crim. Proc. 374; Com. v. Hol stifle, 132 Pa. 361, 19 Atl. 273. The legal ef fect of the plea is the same as that of a plea of guilty so far as all the proceedings on the indictment are concerned ; U. N. v. Hartwell, 3 Cliff. 221, Fed. Cas, No. 15,318 ; State v. Siddall, 103 Me. 144, 68 Atl. 634; State v. Judges, 46 N. J. L. 112 ; a sentence thereon is
a "conviction" ; it is a waiver of all formal defects; Com. v. Hinds, 101 •Mass. 210; but defendant may still move in arrest of judg ment ; Com. v. Northampton, 2 Mass. 116.
It is not admissible in a civil proceed ing on the same facts to show that the de fendant was guilty; White v. Creamer, 175 Mass. 567, 56 N. E. 832. The plea, if ac cepted, cannot be withdrawn and a of not guilty entered except by leave of court ; State v. Siddall, 103 Me. 144, 68 AU. 634; but in Buck v. Com., 107 Pa. 486, the court held the plea to be equivalent to a confession which may be withdrawn at any time before sentence. That it was, at one time, accepted in England only where a fine was to be imposed, see Tucker v. U. •S., 196 Fed. 260, 116 C. C. A. 62, 41 L. R. A. (N. S.) 70, holding that it cannot be accepted where the punishment must be imprisonment, but may be, in an internal revenue case; where, under some counts, the punishment must be imprisonment and under others a fine alone. (The subject was here much discussed.) The cases are collected in 41 L. R. A. (N. S.) 70.
In recent prosecutions under the Sherman act in the district court for the southern dis trict of New York, Archbald, J., in accepting such plea, said: "This plea is a well recog nized one and results in a sentence, and in that respect entirely, fulfills the law. I have received this plea in other courts."