JUDGE'S RULING WILL RELEASE MORE THAN 600 DOCUMENTS

Neely Wins Access To Federal Materials

Ex-lawyer Keith Neely, in prison since 1996, has argued that the
prosecution withheld information that could have helped exonerate him.

Former Christiansburg lawyer Keith Neely has argued since 1993 that he was
railroaded by the prosecution during his trial on drug and money laundering
charges.

In a rare but potentially crucial victory for Neely, who has petitioned the
court for a new trial, a federal judge has ruled that Neely's case "has not
infrequently been visited by evidence of government misconduct."

Neely was one of the highest-profile defense lawyers in Southwest Virginia
during the 1980s.

Senior U.S. District Judge Jackson Kiser overruled Magistrate Judge Glen
Conrad on appeal and granted Neely's motions for disclosure of grand jury
testimony and other discovery materials. Neely has argued that the
prosecution withheld information that could have helped exonerate him.

Conrad ruled in December that Neely could seek additional discovery
material, but that he would have to request specific information and state
why he wanted it.

But Kiser wrote in an opinion filed March 15 that Neely's requests were
justified.

Kiser's ruling should make more than 600 FBI documents available to Neely,
said Max Jenkins, Neely's attorney.

Kiser referenced "internal communication" regarding a 1992 federal case
against a Radford man named Butch Franklin as evidence of prosecutorial
misconduct.

Jenkins said the "internal communication" was an FBI memorandum that
indicated that prosecutors were going to try to get Franklin to testify
against Neely during his trial. The FBI had alleged that Neely was
distributing drugs for Franklin, a charge both men denied.

When Franklin was arrested on the eve of Neely's trial, Neely's attorneys
said it was a sham indictment, Jenkins said. But federal prosecutors said
Franklin's case had nothing to do with Neely's, Jenkins said. Franklin
wound up pleading guilty to two misdemeanors, Jenkins said.

Neely, who is serving a 10-year sentence in federal prison in West
Virginia, has spent the better part of the last decade fighting his March
1993 federal conviction. He has been in prison since May 1996.

Neely's appeal of his criminal conviction was denied by the 4th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals in 1996. He got access to the FBI memorandum after
he sued the government in 1998 for withholding documents pertaining to his
case after he requested them under the Freedom of Information Act.

Kiser ruled in 1999 that the government had to start processing Neely's
request. The FBI sent Neely 795 of the 1,398 documents in his case but
withheld about 600 others.

In separate litigation, Neely is seeking a new trial, claiming that he has
uncovered new evidence including prosecutorial misconduct and the
recantation of the testimony of a government witness, Michael Giacolone.
Giacolone, who was a friend of Neely's, wrote a letter to Kiser saying he
testified against Neely only to get leniency in his own drug case.