Colo. Court Upholds Plea Bargains

Denver, CO -- An appeals court ruled Friday that prosecutors can offer plea bargains in exchange for testimony, overturning a court decision that declared the practice illegal.

The decision last summer by a three-member panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had shocked the Justice Department. That ruling took issue with the moral and legal underpinning of immunity deals which critics describe as a form of bribery and essentially would make criminals of federal prosecutors who offer them.

The ruling was put on hold until the full Denver-based appeals court could decide. In its majority opinion Friday, a 12-member panel wrote that if Congress had intended to overturn the accepted practice, "it would have done so in clear, unmistakable and unarguable language."

The reversal pleased Justice Department officials.

"It's a great day for federal prosecutors across this nation," said Linda McMahan, U.S. attorney for Colorado.

The three judges who made the earlier ruling also sat on the 12-member panel and dissented in Friday's reversal.

The case centered on the Kansas conviction of Sonya Singleton on charges of cocaine trafficking and money laundering. The three judges said the chief prosecution witness illegally received leniency in exchange for his testimony, violating federal law against bribery witnesses.

"If justice is perverted when a criminal defendant seeks to buy testimony from a witness, it is no less perverted when the government does so," said Judge Paul J. Kelley Jr.

The Justice Department said the practice is common, noting that Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols were convicted in the Oklahoma City bombing based on testimony from a former friend who struck a deal.

The three judges had ordered a new trial for Singleton and said Congress should rewrite anti-bribery laws if legislators believe prosecutors should be exempt.

Lawyers scrambled to delay other cases affected by the ruling, but most did not expect it to stand. If the full 10th Circuit court did not overturn it, they said Congress would likely amend the law.

Copyright 1999 Associated Press.

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