“I’m NOT GUILTY!”

What does it mean when someone enters a plea of Not Guilty? Reporters also rush to print articles “on blast” that the defendant in a case pleaded Not Guilty. So what is the significance of this fact? In Montgomery County, Bucks County and probably most of the neighboring Pennsylvania counties, absolutely nothing. Every defendant in the system, whose case makes it to the arraignment stage, enters a plea of Not Guilty. There is no other choice. The defendant can’t plead guilty at that stage even if she’s dying to. The system couldn’t handle that. The plea of Not Guilty only means that the Commonwealth hasn’t yet proven it’s case. If the Defendant wants to, at a later stage, she can certainly change her plea to Guilty and accept responsibility for the crime(s). But even if the defendant is begging to do that at the Arraignment the Court will still enter a Not Guilty plea and the case will move forward to the next stage. So read it for what it is the next time you see that headline “Defendant Pleads Not Guilty!” – Absolutely nothing. Or, in the modern lexicon, fake news….