When a defendant pleads guilty, he waives a variety of rights, including the right to a trial, the right to confront the witnesses against him, and so on. The waiver of those rights is inherent in a guilty plea -- there can't be a guilty plea without such a waiver. If a defendant doesn't just plead guilty, but does so pursuant to a plea agreement, the defendant may waive other rights as specified in the plea agreement. For example, a defendant may agree to waive his right to appeal. That's not inherent in the idea of pleading guilty -- defendants who plead guilty normally retain the right to appeal certain issues, as described in G.S. 15A-1444(a1)-(a2). Instead, it's part of the give-and-take of plea negotiations, so at least in theory, the defendant should be getting something in return for the additional waiver of rights. The Washington Post published an article this weekend about the use of "DNA waivers" in plea agreements in federal court. Essentially, some federal prosecutors' offices ask defendants who plead guilty to waive their rights to post-conviction DNA testing, to which they might otherwise be entitled under 18 U.S.C. § 3600. It sounds like some offices essentially always require such waivers, while other offices sometimes do, and others never do. The story says that the Department of Justice is going to review the use of such waivers. There are several types of additional waivers that could conceivably be part of a plea agreement in North Carolina. Waiver of [...]
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