JUSTICE VS. 'THE DEAL'

It's painfully clear that federal law enforcement handlers couldn't
teach an old "Bull" new tricks - not when those tricks were so ingrained
after a long, nefarious career with the mob.

In exchange for testimony that put away John Gotti and more than 35
mobsters, Sammy "the Bull" Gravano was made an offer he could not
refuse: five years in prison and a new life in Arizona under the Witness
Protection Program. His prison time amounted to less than three months
for each of the his admitted 19 murders.

Now nine years later, the fairness of that deal is suspect after Gravano
turned the tables on the feds.

That begs a disturbing question: How far should prosecutors, at any
level, go in their "deals" with criminals to net the bigger fish?

After hitting the media circuit and telling one interviewer, "I was a
hero," Gravano quit the Witness Protection Program and resumed his old
ways, apparently unfettered. He attempted to create an Arizona Mafia,
collected protection money and financed deals with money left over from
his underboss days - "income" he was allowed to keep under his bargain
with the feds.

Now Gravano, 56, and his son, Gerald, 25, are awaiting sentencing after
pleading guilty to running a multimillion-dollar ecstasy ring in
Arizona. Each faces up to 15 1/2 years in prison.

Justice cannot be bargained away in its pursuit. In this case,
prosecutors got the mob; the public got the Bull.