The term 'DEFENDANT' refers to a person who is ACCUSED of a crime and is being tried in a court of law. The four crossword solutions for this term are 'PLEA' (4 letters), 'scopes' (6 letters), 'sacco' (5 letters), and 'ACCUSED' (7 letters). A PLEA is a formal statement made by the DEFENDANT in response to the charges against them, such as guilty or not guilty. The Scopes trial was a famous 1925 court case in which a Tennessee teacher was ACCUSED of teaching evolution in a public school, which was illegal at the time. Sacco and Vanzetti were two Italian immigrants who were ACCUSED of murder and robbery in 1921 and were the subject of a highly publicized trial. Finally, an ACCUSED is a person who has been formally charged with a crime.