Henry Alford was a black man in the South, at the height of the civil rights movement, who had previously been convicted of murder and armed robbery. On November 22, 1963, Alford and a white woman companion rented a room at a “party house” in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and allegedly got into a fight with its proprietor, Nathaniel Young ...

On December 2, 1963, Alford was indicted for first-degree murder, a capital offense under North Carolina law. 1 The court appointed an attorney to represent him, and this attorney questioned all but one of the various witnesses who appellee said would substantiate his claim of innocence.

North Carolina charged Henry Alford with first-degree murder. That charge carried a possible sentence of life imprisonment or the death penalty. Alford agreed to plead guilty in exchange for a second-degree murder conviction.

At the time Alford pleaded guilty, North Carolina law provided that, if a guilty plea to a charge of first-degree murder was accepted by the prosecution and the court, the penalty would be life imprisonment, rather than death.

Nov 23, 2016 · The court ruled that a defendant could plead guilty to a crime while still maintaining his innocence. This type of plea is now commonly called an Alford plea, after the defendant in the proceedings. The litigation began in Forsyth County. Henry Alford was indicted for first-degree murder in 1963.

Jul 1, 2016 · Fortunately for Henry Alford, the state of North Carolina had offered him a plea deal. He could admit to second-degree murder and face the possibility of 30 years in prison, but avoid the death penalty. His attorney strongly recommended that he take the deal.

Petitioner was indicted by a grand jury of the State of North Carolina for murder in the first degree. With the approval of the state, he pleaded guilty to murder in the second degree and was sentenced on December 10, 1963, to a term of thirty years.

May 7, 2024 · And this is only possible because of a precedent set in the case against a man named Henry Alford more than half a century ago. For our friends in the Deaf and Signing community, you can view an ASL version of this episode. The Fortsythe County Courthouse in North Carolina, taken in 1960.

On December 2nd 1963, Henry Alford was indicted in North Carolina for 1st-degree murder; In the early 1960s, North Carolina law authorized life imprisonment for guilty plea to 1st degree murder & the death penalty conviction following a jury trial for 1st-degree murder; North Carolina law authorized 2 to 30 years imprisonment for 2nd-degree murder

The facts of the case began when Henry Alford was indicted for first-degree murder in North Carolina, a charge that carried the potential for the death penalty. Despite Alford's claims of innocence and the lack of eyewitness testimony to the …