nolo contenderen.
/ˌnəʊləʊ kənˈtɛndəri/, /ˌnəʊləʊ kənˈtɛndəreɪ/, U.S. /ˌnoʊloʊ kənˈtɛndəri/, /ˌnoʊloʊ kənˈtɛndəreɪ/ U.S. Law.
A plea by which a defendant in a criminal prosecution accepts conviction, as in the case of a plea of guilty, but does not admit guilt. Also in extended use.
ΘΚΠ
society > law > administration of justice > court proceedings or procedure > pleading > [noun] > a pleading or plea > plea of not guilty but conviction accepted
nolo contendere1831
no contest1931
1831 S. Putnam in O. Pickering Rep. Supreme Court Mass. 9 207 The plea of nolo contendere is an implied confession of the offence charged.
1835 Federal Cases (U.S.) (1896) 24 1046/2 He was afterwards indicted on the second section of the act of 1800..and was admitted to plead nolo contendere: and thereupon he received sentence for the offense.
1866 Digest Decisions Municipal Interest (Supreme Judicial Court Mass.) 71/2 An indictment against a town for not providing a schoolmaster, which did not conclude ‘against the form of the statues’, etc., was held to be insufficient even after the defendant had pleaded nolo contendere.
1872 G. P. Burnham Mem. U.S. Secret Service p. vii Nolo contendere, don't wish further to contend.
1911 Polit. Sci. Q. 26 751 Most of the accused entered pleas of nolo contendere and were fined an aggregate sum of nearly $150,000.
1942 Yale Law Jrnl. 51 1256 Nolo contendere was not a plea in the accepted sense but more in the nature of a petition to the Sovereign's mercy.
1974 H. L. Foster Ribbin', Jivin', & Playin' Dozens ii. 63 I plead nolo contendere to the charge that middle class behavior and values are more desirable than are lower class behavior and values.
1993 C. T. Rowan Dream Makers, Dream Breakers xx. 358 On October 10, Agnew had stood in the courtroom of Federal District Judge Walter E. Hoffman and pleaded nolo contendere to a single charge of income tax evasion.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1831