Can a defendant respond to an indictment by pleading guilty to a lesser charge?

If the framers of the rules had intended to allow a defendant to respond to an indictment by a guilty plea to a lesser offense, and to permit the court to accept such a plea over the objection of the government, they could and would have used language consistent with that intention. That the authors of the rules were sufficiently knowledgeable to insert such language, if they so desired, is demonstrated by the use of similar language in Rule 31(c),² which provides that a defendant, after trial, may be found guilty of a lesser included offense. Where a term has been carefully employed in one place and excluded in another, it should not be implied where excluded. City of Burbank v. General Elec. Co., 329 F.2d 825 (9th Cir. 1964).