![]() The decision cost Owens 16 more months behind bars. Most defendants, lawyers say, instinctively and rationally, grab any deal they can to win their freedom back. It was a startling choice for an incarcerated defendant-even those with persuasive stories of innocence typically don’t trust the system enough to roll the dice again with 12 jurors or an appellate court. He told his lawyer he wanted to clear his name, and he was willing to take his chances in court and wait in prison however long it took for a new trial to begin. To the world, and legally, he’d still be a killer. But he’d give up a chance at exoneration. The Alford plea was an enticing chance for Owens, by then 43, to move on as a free man. The deal, known as an Alford plea, came with what seemed like an additional carrot: Despite pleading guilty, the Alford plea would allow Owens to say on the record that he was innocent. He could guarantee his immediate release from prison with no retrial and no danger of a new conviction-if he’d agree to plead guilty. But they had also offered him an unusual deal. State prosecutors balked, insisting they still had enough evidence to keep Owens locked away and vowed to retry him.
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