Editing Plea (section)

==Standing mute==

===Common law===
{{see also|peine forte et dure}}
When a defendant refuses to plead to an [[indictment]] it is called "standing mute", and it has been left to juries to decide the reason for the muteness, whether maliciousness or mental impairment.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780191758256.001.0001/acref-9780191758256-e-2902 | isbn=978-0-19-175825-6 | title=A Dictionary of Law Enforcement | chapter=Standing mute | date=22 January 2015 | publisher=Oxford University Press }}</ref> Historically, during an arraignment an accused person would enter a plea, guilty or not, and after pleading not guilty would be asked how he was to be tried, being expected to answer "By God and my country". There were various penalties for refusing to do this if one was of sound mind. In cases of [[piracy]] or [[felony]] the accused was tortured by [[Pressing (execution)|pressing]] until he entered a plea; [[Edward Coke]] reported details of such during a murder trial in the reign of [[James VI and I|James I]]. In 1692 [[Giles Corey]], charged with Witchcraft in [[New England]], was pressed until he died for refusing to answer "By God and my country" after pleading not guilty to  the charges.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Morgan |first1=E. M. |title=The Privilege Against Self-Incrimination |journal=Minnesota Law Review |date=1949 |url=https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/mlr/1174}}</ref> Obtaining pleas by torture was abolished by statute<ref>[[The Felony and Piracy Act 1722]] 12 Geo. 3. c. 20</ref> in 1772.

===US criminal procedure===
A defendant who refuses to enter a plea is usually interpreted as giving a plea of not guilty; the [[Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure]], for instance, state, "If a defendant refuses to enter a plea or if a defendant organization fails to appear, the court must enter a plea of not guilty."<ref name=cornell11>{{cite web|publisher=[[Cornell Law School]]|title=Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure: Rule 11. Pleas|url=https://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/frcrmp/rule_11}}</ref> Similarly, if a defendant attempts to enter an unorthodox plea (a "creative plea"), this will usually be interpreted as a plea of not guilty.<ref>{{citation|url=http://www.nlg-la.org/index_files/cd_questions.pdf|title=Questions and Answers about Civil Disobedience and the Legal Process|author=National Lawyers Guild, LA Chapter|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727003254/http://www.nlg-la.org/index_files/cd_questions.pdf|archive-date=2011-07-27}}</ref> One example of this was a defendant accused of a crime committed while protesting a [[nuclear power]] plant, who gave his plea as "I plead for the beauty that surrounds us".<ref>{{citation|author=Hurst, John|title=A-plant protestors being freed|work=Los Angeles Times|date=August 10, 1978}}</ref>