Also known as: withdrawn guilty plea · withdrawal of guilty plea · withdrawal of guilty pleas · guilty plea withdrawal
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
An evidentiary exclusion that bars admission of a guilty plea later withdrawn by the defendant when offered against that defendant in any subsequent civil or criminal case. The bar extends to the plea itself and certain related statements made during the plea proceeding or discussions that did not produce a final guilty plea. The protection encourages open participation in plea bargaining by removing the risk that an abandoned plea will later serve as an admission of guilt.
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Warren Wu, CEO of a software startup, entered a guilty plea at arraignment on wire-fraud charges but later withdrew it after the court suppressed key evidence. The government then filed a parallel civil securities-fraud suit and offered the transcript of the withdrawn plea hearing as an admission. The court sustained Wu's objection and excluded the plea because a later-withdrawn guilty plea cannot be used against the defendant who entered it.
Omar, a manager at GreenLine Waste Services, pleaded guilty at an early hearing on illegal-dumping charges but successfully withdrew the plea after the court questioned the factual basis. Nearby residents later sued Omar and GreenLine in a civil nuisance action and sought to introduce the withdrawn plea as proof of the dumping. The court excluded the plea because the rule prohibits its use against the defendant who made and withdrew it, even in a civil proceeding arising from the same conduct.
No. The rules treat a guilty plea that is later withdrawn as inadmissible against the defendant who made it in any civil or criminal proceeding. The exclusion applies even when the civil plaintiffs are private parties seeking to prove the same underlying conduct.
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The exclusion covers both the withdrawn guilty plea and statements made during the plea proceeding or related discussions that did not result in a final guilty plea. The protection applies in civil actions as well as criminal cases to encourage candid plea negotiations.
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No. The rule creates a categorical bar on using the withdrawn plea against the defendant. It does not contain an impeachment exception based on later inconsistent testimony. Narrow exceptions exist only for perjury prosecutions or fairness when another statement from the same proceeding is introduced.
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Yes. The exclusion operates whenever the withdrawn plea is offered against the defendant who made it, regardless of whether the later proceeding is brought by the government or by private plaintiffs. The policy of protecting plea bargaining applies equally in both settings.
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