The following states the definition of the "Alford plea" as it is written in a typical guilty plea agreement :
"I understand that my decision to plead guilty by way of the Alford decision does not require me to admit guilt, but is based on my belief that the State would present sufficient evidence at trial that a jury would return a verdict of guilty of a greater offense or of more offenses than that to which I am pleading guilty."
Here, Alford requires the State to have "sufficient evidence" to prove the trial charge. The following demonstrates why Ms. Pieper cannot offer the Alford plea because the "procedural defects" is the State's admission there is a complete lack of pretrial evidence to prove kidnapping.
The following is from plea hearing transcript, page 5 :
page 6 :
page 7 :
There is no "...the proof the State believes they can present to a Trier...". All this points back to another waived procedural defect.