8.9 Admissions and Guilty Pleas

• Library: Juvenile Law and Practice in Virginia (Virginia CLE) (2018 Ed.)

8.9 ADMISSIONS AND GUILTY PLEAS

8.901 Possible Pleas and Inquiry into Guilty Plea. Rule 8:18 of the Rules of the Virginia Supreme Court makes clear that the permissible pleas in a delinquency case are "guilty," "not guilty," "nolo contendere," or "no plea," which will be treated as a denial of the allegations. Like Rule 8:17, the rule requires a searching inquiry into the voluntariness, understanding, and intelligence of a juvenile's plea of guilty or nolo contendere in a delinquency case. The inquiry must address whether such a plea: (i) is voluntary; (ii) is made with an understanding of the nature of the petition's allegations; and (iii) has been entered with full comprehension of the consequences of the plea; and whether the juvenile understands that the plea constitutes a waiver of the right to confront one's accusers and the right against compulsory self-incrimination.

8.902 Plea Bargaining, Cooperation/Immunity Agreements, and the Decision to Plead Guilty. Although the appropriateness of plea bargaining was long controversial in the juvenile justice system, the American Bar Association Standards Relating to Adjudication recognize the practice, legitimize it, and urge that it be regulated. ⁵⁶ Rule 8:18 attempts to

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do that, although it does not explicitly refer to the existence of an...