Alford Plea Allowed Court To Conclude That Defendant Violated Supervised Release By Committing a New Crime

United States v. Glenn, No. 13-0231-cr (2d Cir. Mar. 12, 2014) (Jacobs, Livingston, and Lynch), available here

Glenn appealed from an order of the District of Connecticut revoking his supervised release. The district court concluded that Glenn committed “another federal, state or local offense” in violation of the conditions of his supervised release, based solely on his pleas of guilty to state drug offenses entered under the Alford doctrine, see North Carolina v. Alford, 400 U.S. 25 (1970).

Defendant argued on appeal that his Alford pleas were insufficient to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that he had violated the conditions of his supervision. But the Circuit affirmed. It held that an Alford plea, under Connecticut law, constitutes an acknowledgement of the strength of the state’s evidence. Accordingly, the district court did not abuse its discretion in concluding, by a preponderance of the evidence, that Glenn committed another offense in violation of the conditions of his supervised release.